


Fall to rise

by cisco_centric_4ever



Series: Revenge and Neglect [2]
Category: Bleach, Naruto
Genre: Child Abuse, Crossdressing, Crossover, F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Mpreg, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2018-10-29 10:05:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 24,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10851735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cisco_centric_4ever/pseuds/cisco_centric_4ever
Summary: Naruto life was hell, he didn't like it, and he would do anything to change it. Then came the exams, the day he had been waiting for his whole life, to knew he passed when he preformed the shadow clone instead of the regular clone. However, when he went to get his head band, he was denied, why? Because a certain someone didn't want him to be better than everyone else. defeated and mad, Naruto finds a way to get the head band that he deserved, however, before he could live his new ninja life style, an incident from a recent event bought about some bad news and he was forced to take measures into his own hands. He leave he village and finds himself in a place called Karakura Town and somehow, is living with the Kurosake family. Later on, when the village wants Naruto back, will he be able to leave his new life and return to his old one, or will he not have a choice in the matter? Oh, but then there's a war, and feelings get in the way, he has friends back home, or he thinks that they are. What will poor Naruto do?





	1. The Forgotten Hero

**Author's Note:**

> This story is currently be written because I think that I can do a better job at writing this story, it will still have some of the basics from before, but it will be different and much more understandable, hopefully, to everyone.

The night the Kyuubi attacked, was the same night that the shinigami had made a deal with the third Hokage, in place of the forth. Instead of dying that night, as he had planned to do so his successor could be with his family and rule the village. He was sealed. Along with the Kyuubi, inside of the forth's son. Insuring that Naruto would get the love and attention that he would need, one way or another.

* * *

 

 

Naruto was walking down the street, no wait, scratch that, he was running. It was a constant thing that he's been doing since the very moment that he learned how to walk. Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze was running for his life, from a pack of wild savage animals that call themselves Konoha citizens. Yes, ever since that night, long, long ago, the villagers had never been able to see past their hate and lose, even though the ones that did die that night had no known family in the village itself, still they died and the villagers couldn't get over it. No one close to them personally had died, but since they saw all the destruction that the Kyuubi did that night, they wanted the person holding it to die as well, just so that they were sure the beast was dead as well. So as Naruto ran through the streets, he knew better than to call out for help, he knew better than to cry, he especially knew to never let them catch up to him because nothing good ever happened then. It was close to midnight now, and the 'fox hunt' had been going for nearly three and a half hours now. Naruto wasn't an expert on many things, but he knew that the body needed rest, or else it would collapse at some point. He knew that, like any other human being, he would need to get away from them in order to take a break, a much-needed one at that. However, this year seemed to be the worst year for him, because every time he had found a place to hid and rest, the villagers would find him and start the chase up again. Again, this was a constant in Naruto's life, and he wasn't so surprised when it happened anymore. Yet this year, this year was going to be different.

 

Naruto had managed to take a bad turn, he knew this because he was now standing in front of a dead end. "I see the demon has finally run out of tricks tonight. What you guys say we teach this thing a lesson, yeah?!" One of the organizers of the group spoke, it was some pink haired lady that had the loudest, annoying voice known to man, but she was the biggest hater of the Kyuubi thus far, and Naruto still had no idea why.

 

The crowd cheered at the woman's and started giving suggestions on what they should do with the so-called 'demon'. It wasn't until one man stepped up with a suggestion of his own did the crowd stop to think. This man was tall with gravity-defying hair, and a ANBU dog mask on his face was supposed to be protecting Naruto from all of this. Yet he was making comments on how to hurt the boy? Naruto felt something at the pit of his stomach that said 'run', but looking about, there was no other place to turn and run. The crowd blocked his way, the wall wasn't just going to get up and move, and the only way up was to walk up he damn thing, which he hadn't managed to quite get the hang of quite yet. Naruto was toast, and when he heard what his ANBU protector suggested, he knew, deep down in side, that this night was going to be  _the_ major turning point of his rest of his whole life.

 

"I say, since this little prick wants to become a ninja so bad, officially making him an adult, why not show him how the grown ups do things?" Stated the dog ANBU to the crowd.

 

The pink haired woman looked at him in wonder, "hmm, explain, what do you mean by that?" She asked.

 

"Oh, well I just mean that, he looks like he needs someone to put him in the right mind set. Who better to do it than a superior officer?" Dog said in a lazy, yet hungry, way as he eyed up the blond. Dog has had his eye on Naruto for a long while, ever since he had seen what the kyuubi was capable of doing, he wonder for a moment if the boy could do the same thing, but since his control over the fox's chakra was shot, he gave up on that thought and came to another. Anyone that knew his parents knew that his mother was beautiful and his father was handsome, before they got together, they were with others that said that they were monsters in the sheets, so why not this boy? Even before Naruto was three years old, he had slight feminine features that told of his future beauty, and now here he was, twelve years old, and he was a sight to see. Golden blond hair that was slightly dirty from all the years running around in the dirty, fair skin that was nearly covered head to toe in bruises, cuts, scraps, and every scare you could think of, and a nice body that was a little more on the thin side due to the lack of food. Yes, Dog could tell, even if Naruto had gotten the food he needed and other care, he would be even more beautiful to look at. And the men in the crowd seemed to agree with him, because they were smirking and grinning like made. Dog did not really like sharing his things that much, but he was sure that this one time wouldn't be too bad. 

 

The pink haired woman nodded and smirked at the blond, "you hear that demon? You should count yourself lucky that someone would even  _want_   to touch you, let alone fuck you!"

 

Naruto shook his head, he didn't understand what the woman meant by that, but he knew that anything she said would equal his pain. "What are you even talking about, I haven't done anything to anyone! None of you! But every year you all would chase me and beat up, and for what? To make yourselves feel better, is that it? Huh?" Naruto yelled at the crowd, which got them angry, and he knew he shouldn't, but he wanted his voice to be heard, even if it was just by one person, he wanted to be heard. But the crowd wasn't listening, he backed up deeper into his corner of the wall and prayed that they wouldn't hurt him too badly, he had school to go to, it didn't help that it was still only Monday night that they decide to do this. The man who made the suggestion walked over closer to Naruto, his face couldn't be seen, but he got the feeling that the older male was smiling at his pain. "No, stay away, you're supposed to be protecting me, why are you doing this?!" Naruto tried.

 

The man stopped just before reaching him, Naruto though he had finally reached someone, but when the man spoke, that hope was dashed. "Why? Because it's fun, don't you think?" He said in a voice that was so care free that it made Naruto want to cry, the man laughed at the blond's fear streaked face, "that's it, that's what I like to see, not come here and be a good boy for daddy." Naruto didn't move, nor did he want to, this only made the ANBU more determined in his act, "have it your way, you do know that I was trying to be nice, right?" He said sweetly before laughing, then he took out some kuni and moved towards the blond boy quickly, Naruto closed his eyes.

 

However, when he didn't feel any pain come his way, he opened his eyes to see his mindscape. The place was no longer a dank sewer, but a wonderful meadow with a cottage and lake there, animals ran free, and the trees bloomed with cheery blossoms all year round. He turned around to see a woman with dark orange hair and a kind smile walking towards him, she ware a kimono of red and pink, decorated in flower pedals that seemed to flow around her like the clouds in the sky. Next to her was the old man, he ware red and white robes that made him look like the wise leader of the hidden village he died for, even though he regretted that decision now.

 

"Naruto, why don't you come inside and spend sometime with us? We've got the shogi board all set up for you," Hiruzen said with a soft smile gracing his face, he and kyuubi had been quick to act just now. They had pulled Naruto into his mindscape just seconds before that ANBU ran him through with his kuni, if they were a second later, then Naruto would be living another painful day. And from the look of the crowd, this was going to be one of the more painful ones.

 

 **"Yeah giki, I bet you can't beat me this time,"** Kura, the woman standing next to Hiruzen, chuckled. She was the kyuubi, and yes, she is a woman, though she could change to a man if she wanted to, gender meant nothing to the bijuu and they would switch back and forth at will.

 

Naruto frowned, "you guys keep pulling me in like this...." he stated with his head down, his bangs covering his eyes. He knew that they brought him to his mindscape so that he wouldn't feel the full brunt of the beating, and whatever else they had in store for him, but still, he was grateful for it. He never new what a mother's love felt like until he met Kura, and Hiruzen was like the father he never had. Didn't have. He looked up at them, watery eyes and big smiles. "Alright, I'm going to beat your but this tie, Kura-chan!" He said as he raced inside the house, Kura followed him in just as fast, promising to go easy on him just this once, even though that would soon become forgotten in as their game became heated. Hiruzen chuckled as he followed them in, he was just about to close the door when he noticed something. He looked up into the surrounding forest and thought he saw something, but he could have been mistaken. This was the mind of a twelve year old boy, what could possibly get in? With that thought in mind, he closed the door and went to see how the game was going, and who was in the lead so far.

 

 

**To be continued.......**


	2. Exams

Naruto woke up sometime later the next morning with a massive headache and a sore and aching body. He didn't want to think about why it was so hard to walk, or why his bottom stung,even though Kurama's chakra should have already healed his body enough that nothing hurt. Or at least not this much.  _"I guess they must have really ddone a number on me last night, huh?"_ The blond thought bitterly to himself as he hobbled back to his supposed home, on his way there, he took every back ally and empty side road that he knew of, he found his way back to the large mansion with thee manicured lawn in front of it, just beyond a tall gate of brass. It was a beautiful estate, but to Naruto, it was nothing more than an ugly prison, so many rooms, so many luxurious, something that he's never known while living here. Making his way around to the back of the overly large home to the family of four, he found his special hole and crawl through it, making sure not to trip the alarm and then he found his way beck inside his sorry excuse for a room. It wasn't even a room, it was the attic. A house with almost ten to twenty bedrooms, fifteen bathrooms, two libraries, two and a half swimming pools, a kitchen that can fit seven teen people, two guest houses, and a training ground the size of a football field, and he was forced to sleep in the drafty attic of the house, out of sight from everyone in the house, and their guest when they came over. Naruto felt disgusted by this, and couldn't wait to become a ninja so that he could save up enough money to move out of this damn place, or at least find a way to run away without being seen. Yep, no dreams of being some stupid old Hokage for this blond, because he wanted out, out of this house, family (if you could call them that), and village. It didn't even feel like home to him, it never did, and if he could get one chance to leave it all behind, he would do it in a heart beat. 

 

Now then, as Naruto thought about that, he made sure to not make a single sound as he cleaned himself up with the bucket of water he had brought to his room the night before. Naruto always had trouble getting cleaned up after beatings, when he told his 'mother' and 'father' what the villagers were doing to him, they would only beat him more for telling 'lies' on the 'innocent and sweet' villagers. It honestly made Naruto's stomach turn how much his parents couldn't look 'underneath the underneath'. They were supposed to be famed ninja that had a body count as big as the Hokage mountain, so why couldn't they see the truth? Shaking himself of these thoughts, Naruto finished whipping off the last of the dried blood on his skin, he took the now dirty bucket of water to the window so he could dump it later and got dressed. Since his so called 'family' got so many gifts from the village, they often threw out anything that didn't either fit in their closet anymore, or was just not in their taste anymore, and would often throw them away. However, because of this, Naruto had enough clothing choices to make himself new clothes from the discarded piles of clothing they threw away like trash. Today's outfit consisted of: A jacket from his twin brother that he got as a gift from one of his many fangirls, since the jacket wasn't flashy or 'cool' looking enough, his twin, Menma, ripped it up and threw it away right in front of the girl who gave it to him (talk about rude). Lastly, a orange dress that Mito, his other sibling, got from a fanboy, she hated the way it didn't make her look 'woman enough' and threw it away the moment she got home. Since Naruto had so much free time on his hands, he learned how to sew. He had found the jacket in the trash two nights ago and restyled it into a new jacket that was like any other, but it came down just above his wast line, the orange dress was turned into a crop top and short-shorts, since the dress was so short to begin with. With the shorts, he pared some black thigh high stockings that he made out of sleeves from a dress that Kushina had thrown away a year before, when he was done, he looked into the broken mirror that he managed to find in a dumpster one night. Using one hand sign, Naruto put up a genjutsu around himself, blond hair became chocolate brown and curly, ocean blue eyes were turn into a bright green, and a pale skin became lightly tanned. Turning around to look at himself in the mirror, he smiled brightly at his own work, he quickly grabbed his his stuff, pulled on his shoes, and picked up the bucket of dirty water. A quick glace at the sun told him that he was already ten minutes late thanks to those damn villagers, not wanting to be any later, he opened the window and threw the water out, oddly enough, Kushina happened to be walking under the window that time and was drowned in the filthy water, "oops, I'm going to have to stay away from her sights for a while," thought the blond-now chocolate brunet-to himself as he prepared to do a shushine. As he disappeared in a poof of smoke, there was a agonized scream of pain and anger, but Naruto could care less which it was, because it would only mean pain for him if the person behind the scream caught up with him. Luckily for him, they never came up to the attic...yet.

* * *

 

**Academy**

 

As Iruka was talking about the test, a poof of smoke appeared in front of him and everyone in the room awed at it. Iruka looked to see who it was and was surprised to see that it was his stare student, Akime. "It's nice of you to finally join us, Akime-san, now if you would please take your seat, we're about to begin the test," Iruka stated in a fair tone, he had no doubt that she was going to pass this test. He just knew it.

 

Akime, the girl with chocolate brown hair and bright green eyes, turned around to Iruka and gave a sheepish smile. "Hai, Iruka-sensei, gomen, I uh, woke up late, yeah, I woke up late this morning and lost track of time," the 'girl' chuckled nervously before bowing to her sensei and then ran to get to her seat. Once she was sitting, Iruka went on with his speech, Akime, or Naruto, sighed and leaned back in his seat, he still couldn't believe that he had to go in disguise to become a ninja, but then again, since no one expected the 'demon' to know anything about ninjutsu in order to hid, no one caught on. He didn't really need to do much other than change his hair, eyes and face, the rest of his was dainty enough to pass for female. Since Minato didn't want his 'demon' son to become a demon who could learn something about how to defend himself from harm from the village, he prevented Naruto from entering and or studying the ninja arts, but Kura helped him out and so did the third, both teaching him everything he knew about the art. When they suggested that he disguise himself to enter the academy to become a ninja, Naruto had not expected to be a girl the whole time, but hay, at lest he was getting what he wanted, so what if he had a ever growing group of fanboys and some girls? So what if he was hit on by his brother almost every day? It was worth it as long as Menma didn't try to group him or something, and when he became a ninja, it would all be worth it then. 

 

"Now then everyone, let's begin the first part of the test, "Iruka stated once all the papers had been given out.

 

Naruto looked sown at his paper and sighed, even when he was in disguise, there were still people who wanted to see him fail. Like the council, so they hired some idiot named Mizuki to lower Naruto's grades, since at the rate he was going after starting, he was easily beating Sasuke and all the other clan heirs. He was at the top of the class, and he was barely even trying, either that, or the test they were passing off as hard was way too easy. When Naruto looked at his test, he noticed the high ranking genjutsu on his paper and dispelled it, Mizuki was good, but he wasn't that good, he started the test and answered every single question right. After ten minutes, he put down his pencil and took out a book to read, the cover was covered, so no one knew that it was the final book on master level advanced sealing. Something he 'borrowed' from his 'parents' library. When everyone else was done, they waited for the next test to start, the next one was about throwing, fighting, and releasing genjut's. Naruto got top scores in that part, even if Mizuki gave him bad weapons that were unbalanced, the taijutsu test was over before it barely started, but the genjutsu test was the one that last got him revealed to the whole class.

 

 **"Naruto, be careful, he's layered them,"** Kura said as Mizuki placed the genjutsu on Naruto.

 

 _"I figured as much, one fales move and I reveal the real me,"_ Naruto though back to his furry friend. He then released the first layer, then the second, it was five layers it seemed, and Naruto had to hurry before time ran out, when he got to the last on, he made sure that his own genjutsu was still in place and released the last one. After words, he made sure that his disguise was still in place before putting up two more layers of it when everyone wasn't looking. He already had two layers on, what was two more?

 

"Hump, nice going, I guess, loser," said Mito as she walked passed him, bumping him with her non-existent hips.

 

**"Did she jus-"**

 

 _"Let it go, Kura-chan, just let it go. The best that we can hope for now is that she get's put on a different team than me."_ Naruto followed the group back inside of the building while Kuram stewed in her own anger, Hiruzen was trying to calm her down, but saw that there was no point and went back to watching the exams play out from Naruto's eyes. He did teach the blond everything he knew, and now he was about to reap his rewards of years of lecturing and shared memories from his own time, after some time, Kura calmed down enough to continue watching as things play out, growing happy when Naruto's fake name was finally called.

 

"Hay baby, when you get your head band, why don't us cool kids go out somewhere to hang, huh? I can take you to this cool ramen place I know," flirted Menma as Akime passed by his desk.

 

Naruto didn't even pause, he was used to this by now, "no thanks, I've got other things that needs doing before I can hang out," he said with practiced ease.

 

Usually that would be the end of it, but it seems that Menma wasn't letting him go that easy this time, "oh came on, you say that all the time. What's more important than hanging out with one of the hokage's kids?" Menma stated as he got in front of Akime, said person just side stepped him, he was a little pissed at that and tired again, "I mean, for real, I'm real strong, you're strong enough, why don't you get get together with me and call it a done deal, huh? You can't possible say no to the hokage's kid, right?"

 

Akime gave Menma a calculating look, he knew that Menma had an ego, saying no caused trouble for whoever said such a thing to him more than once or twice. However, Naruto was getting late for hie turn and he really, really, really didn't want to hang out with his twin more than he had to, so he though of something that would get the other blond off his case. Of a while at least. "Tell you what, Menma-san, I will consider it and once I'm done with my test, I will give you my answer, alright? Now, I really must be going, it's still my turn," he said and walked away from him with a motionless expression, this got Menma to leave him alone, thinking that he finally got what he wanted.

 

"Really? Alright! YOU GUYS HEAR THAT, I FINALLY GOT HER WHERE I WANT HER! In your face Sasuke!" Menma cheered to his raven haired rival who stewed in his own anger and hate for the boy before him. They had been fighting over Akime ever since she showed up in the class, they saw her strength and knew that she could fight with the best of them, if only they knew. So this brought about the unspoken challenge to see who would get her to date, and ultimately marry, them first. Because in their mind, dating them is basically agreeing to marry them, no questions asked., or that's what they thought at least, and the fan girls of both boys were none to happy about this and hated Akime for 'stealing' their man/men away from them.

* * *

 

 **With Naruto**  

 

Naruto walked into the room and was greeted with the sight of Iruka, Mizuki, and surprisingly, Minato and Kushina. He had not expected the two to be here, but brushed it off and kept his guard up. "Alright, Akime-san, please preform the academy basics," Iruka stated, and the undercover blond did as asked. Naruto created five shadow clones, one was replaced with a chair, one turned into Iruka, another turned into Hiruzen, another Hashiram, the first Hokage, and Naruto himself turned into Tobirama, the second Hokage. Minato anf Kushina were impressed and saw what their son was talking about when he went on and on about this girl. They were both happy that he liked such a strong girl, and they couldn't wait to ask her what they came all the way here to ask. "Okay, you pass, I'm so proud of you, you make take any headband you like," Iruka said while Mizuki grumbled incoherently about the kid passing. 

 

As Naruto grabbed a black head band and was about to walk out the door, Kushina stood up after nodding to her husband, "Akime-chan, could you stay for a quick moment?" She asked sweetly, "I would like to ask you something, I promise it wont take too long." Akime knew something was up and was preparing plans of escape, but on the outside, she was calm and collected as she nodded to the red head for her ton ask the question, "you see, you are very strong, and we heard that our son likes you, a lot."

 

And there it was, the real reason for them to be here, Naruto cursed inside his head, but stayed calm, "yes, I was made aware of it by him asking me on many dates in the past."

 

"Right, so you like our son as well, this makes it much easier to ask," Minto said, also getting up from his seat.

 

Naruto was thinking that if he ran out of the room fast enough and shushinned somewhere far away, they wouldn't catch up to him for a while. But he couldn't just leave, not yet anyways, he had to think up a way to distract them so he could run, "I do tolerate him, but no, I don't like him. Or, no in the way that you think."

 

"Oh well you'll come around, he's a really grate guy when you get to know him, so back to what we were going to ask." Kushina said, brushing off Akime's suggestion of not liking her son in a romantic way, she found it absolutely absurd, "how would you like to take our son's hand in marriage?" 

 

"Oh my, isn't this a bit sudden, Kushina-sama? Minato-sama?" Iruka asked worriedly, he knew that Akime had no parents of her own, and thus, no one to ask for her hand, so asking the girl directly is their only option. However, even if this was the only way, they couldn't find a better way than this? Iruke was worried because Akime had just finished taking a test to become a genin, and still haven't found out about the second test that was needed to pass, now she was being asked by the parent's of the Hokage's son to marry into their family? That's a little too much stress for one child in his book.

 

Naruto, in the meantime, wanted to throw up,  _"I knew he was talking about me to them, but to think that they would go so far for me? And Mito is already taking my spot for Uzumaki clan heir, I heard them talk about it last week, she's not even first or second born!"_ Outwardly, Naruto was still calm, it seemed that Kura's temper training helped him out greatly, "Hokage-sama, Kushina-sama, may I be given time to think about this? I still need to get used to being a genin and going on missions first before thinking about such a big step in my life, may I have this time to think it over still?"

 

"Oh yes, yes, of course, take all the time you need my musume," Kushina gushed. Mizuki rolled his eyes at the scene, Minato smiled brightly at his future daughter-in-law, and Iruka sighed heavily,  Naruto just walked out of the room without looking back, to angry to say a thing.

 

While he was walking down the hallway, he did a familiar hand sign and made a shadow clone, "you know what to do," he said to the clone before going up it in smoke. The clone walked back into the class and walked right up to Menma who had been waiting her return.

 

"Ah, so you're back, did you pass? Aww what am I saying, I know you did, so where shall we go on ou-"  ** _slap_** before he could finish that thought, the clone slapped him so hard in the face that it sent him flying away. The other blond skidded across the room to the other side and hit the wall there He held his face in disbelieve, staring at the person who did in much the same way, so was the rest of the class, "why did you-?"

 

"Because I'm sick and tired of you always thinking that I belong to you and that I should do anything you say. Well news flash, I'm not into you, I actually hate you, you disgust me, and I hope to never, ever see you again. If we are placed on the same team, try your best to be civil and act like some form of human being with sense. I don't like you that way, get it through your head, and I never will, in fact, don't you ever speak to me again unless we have a mission together, you have a real message from the hokage about a mission, or the village or our teammate is in danger. Understand, if you don't follow those simple rules, well then...maybe you shouldn't become a ninja after all," said the clone before dispelling itself. 

 

After that, Kushina and Minato came rushing into the room, seeing their son on the ground and running to his air. "What happened here son, are you alright?" Mianto asked Menma, who then began to cry without care, his heart had been just broken, and he was told no by the only girl he ever even considered dating since he first saw her. Now she told him that she hated him, and that didn't sit well with him, so doing as he always did when he didn't get his way, he cried to his parents, telling them all that happened. Minato and Kushina wasn't happy about that one bit.

 


	3. Leaving it all behind

Sitting on top of the hokage mountain, Naruto, the real one, sat with his knees pulled up close to his chest. He was in deep thought, Hiruzen and Kura knowing better than to disturb his train of thought, so they left him alone to think. This did not mean that they weren't ready to pull him inside of his mindscape if they needed to talk to him, they were ready to do that any time. After what seemed like a very long time, Naruto lifted his head up to the sky and gazed at the newly forming stars there,  _"well....I finally became a ninja, but it's not with my own name. Now what do I do? I can't just keep this up every time I leave the house to go out into the village, or go off on a mission...can I?"_ Though the blond, but he already knew the answer to that question, with his reserves, and his stamina, he could do that no problem, however, there will be moments. Moments that he will get distracted, he would forget to take down the henge/genjutsu he placed on himself to start going to the academy years ago. There will also come a time that someone, anyone at all, will start to wonder, 'hay, where did our little punching bag go?' And then they will start to look for him, hunt him down, they might even call on Naruto himself to hunt himself down,  _"what sick irony would that be?"_ He chuckled to himself, a small bitter laugh that made him that much more empty on the inside. He was tired of hiding in a place that was supposed to be his home, the place that he grew up and was supposed to protect, want to save when it was attacked, and most of all, feel safe. But he didn't feel safe with that, he didn't feel as if this was his home, his life had been spent running from the others that lived there, and for what? Because of one man wanting to have power, the power to control the world. Or was it just for fun that he destroyed the village? Naruto didn't know, he didn't much care to know either, but it might have helped. However, since he was thinking about these things more and more lately, and because of the attack he had went through the night before, he was starting to have another thought more and more. 

 

 _"What if I really did leave?"_ And didn't that though just sound dandy? 

 

To leave this place...

 

To get a new life some place new...

 

Meet new people...

 

Make friends.......

 

The more that he thought about it, it was hard not to want such a thing. He wanted to leave. He wanted to be seat free, he wanted to find something new to his existence that just....this.

 

But how?

 

It wasn't like they were just going to let him leave.

 

He knows, he's tried it before, but then how?

 

Naruto thought back to all the times that he had thought of escaping this hell of his, every time he actually made it to the gates. Every time he made it beyond the gates. Every time he had made it a few miles from the village and lived off the land before being brought back....Then he remembered all the times that he was brought back from those attempts:

 

He was about three when he had made it through the gate and then walked through it, it was night time and he thought that it would be nice to see what was beyond the wall. The wall that always kept him in. His prison, but he didn't really comprehend this at the time, he was still only just three years old, and the villagers had given him his first beating that day. He made it just outside the gate before someone knocked him out and brought him to the hokage, is so called 'father'. When he woke up, he was beaten by said man and his wife, no mercy or care was given to him before or after, they only yelled at him for doing it. They didn't explain anything to him about why it was wrong to do what he did, or tell him that they were worried about him, not that he thought they would.

 

He was about five the next time. He had been bullied by both his brother and sister, even though his sister was younger than him by a minute, he was still her big brother. Menma had made fun of him, expecting to get a rise out of, but when he didn't get what he wanted. then they started beating him up to do so, Naruto tried to defend himself against the attacks, but he hadn't eaten in a while and was weaken because of hunger. Their 'fight' ended up waking Mito from her nap and she started beating up the both of them for it, but soon turned on Naruto after Menma told her that it was his fault that she was awoken. This went on for a few hours until their parents entered to see what was going on, after hearing Mito and Menma's side of the story, they didn't wait until Naruto spoke to start beating him up, when they were done, they kicked him out of the house. After he was kicked out, Naruto went digging in the trash to find something to eat, then he ran towards the gate, avoiding people as he went, when he did make it out the gate, he lasted about three whole days out of the village before someone finally came looking for him. That was when he learned how to be stealthy to a fault, and he was only five. He got another beating when he got back to the village almost a week later, which impressed the ANBU, Weasel, that caught him. Weasel made a recommendation that Naruto be placed in the academy in the following year, since the registrations were closed already, but Minato refused and punished Naruto with another beating and something else. Weasel had heard of this, and secretly taught Naruto the many things that he knew, he believed that the boy would do grate things and be much better than his famed brother and sister by doing so. 

 

The next time, Naruto actually tired, this was his third time and he knew what he had done wrong the last two times. he wasn't trying those times, the first time was just an act of curiosity, and he had made it just threw the gate with it. Now that he was actually trying, he knew that he could do it this time, and make his freedom last longer. Naruto waited until everyone was asleep to put his plan into action. He gathered food, read book, and since he already knew the academy basics, he henged himself for a higher success rate. This time he would make it out the gate and away from the gate for sure. Once he was packed, he henged into a girl that had chocolate brown hair and bright green eyes, this was the day that Akime was born. Naruto, under henge, ran his 'home' under the cover of darkness, he hid his chakra well and made it out the gate right under the guard's nose, so far so good. He ran long hours into the night, he felt amazing as he did this and made sure that he didn't relax until he was out of the country, he had studied maps for months to do this and he was positive that he knew his escape rout very well. However, the one thing that he didn't count on was ANBU, well he counted for them, but he knew that most of them was away on missions at the time and wouldn't be back too soon. Yet, there was one ANBU that came back a day earlier than he was expecting him to. Dropping down, he watched the ANBU with the dog mask set up camp, he tracked him to make sure that he didn't find his hiding place. It took a few hours, but the Dog ANBU finally left the area, heading in the direction of Konoha, and Naruto took a breath of relief, he made his way to the boarder after two days. He was just about to cross, he was almost found out, he changed his henge into someone older, it turned out to be someone related to the Sandime, Asuma. Even though he had never seen or meet Asuma before, he knew that he did a good job of replicating his look when he looked into a lake and the Sandime praised him for it, and the look worked. He crossed the boarder and left the country, he made it farther than he did before and he was so proud of himself. It had only been about a few months since his last attempt, and it was almost the end of they year by then, Minato still didn't put him in to the academy but that didn't stop Naruto from practicing in his own spare time. Since his father's library was filled with jutsu, taijutsu moves, and the like, Naruto just borrowed a few to take with him. They had tons of books, but they had never let him read one, they didn't even teach him how to read and write, Kura and the old man did that, so he trained in secret and made more progress than his siblings had since they started their own training two years before him. 

 

It took about a month for Naruto to be found and brought back to the village, however, this time, he was in a henge. Since Kura was sealed within him and her chakra made Naruto's henge solid and detectable to anyone that did and didn't know him. Not that there was any one in the village that knew him well enough to say what he acted like behind closed doors and away from preying eyes. During that time, he was taught how to control some of Kura's chakra, the Sandime told him about the shadow clone jutsu, and he learned many jutsu while using it, though, he did not want to rely only on that one jutsu to learn things. When he was found, it was by that same Dog mask ANBU from before, he was nice to Naruto, but only because he didn't know that it really was Naruto, and then Dog was told something by the other ANBU that was with him. This led to Naruto being brought back to the village as an orphan. The Yondime treated him, or rather Akime, as if he was going to be a great asset to have in the village, setting him up with his own housing and allowance to boot, and would drop in from time to time. He even encouraged Akime to enter the academy the following week, even though the year was just about over, not knowing what else to do, Naruto just played alone for a while, living the high life as Akime Hjime.

 

The official story was that Naruto was missing, and assumed die, for three months, no funeral whatsoever in his name. Unofficially, Naruto had been in the village for a little over two months, but no one knew that. To this day, they still wondered how the blond had eluded them for so long. When Naruto finally decided to show that he was alive, he got the beating of a life time and was tortured by his so called 'family' for nearly a month and a half. From then on, Minato and his family decided that Naruto was nothing more than a burden that they had to live with and just ignored him, sometimes they would use him as a punching bag to get out their frustrations, but other than that, Naruto became a ghost to his own flesh and blood.

.

.

.

.

.

It was this memory that was the straw that broke the camel's back. He had had enough, even though he was a ninja now, he knew that nothing will ever change. Not with his team, sensei, family, village, nothing....So why was he still sitting there? Well, he needed time, time to think up a plan that would insure his safety from them, and sanity. It was also at this point that Kurama and Hiruzen knew it was time to talk to the blond wonder.

* * *

**Mindscape**

 

Naruto looked about himself, he knew where he was, but why was he back in his own mind again? "What's up?" He asked the two walking up to him.

 

"Naruto, Kura-chan has something she would like to discus with you, it's very serious, to please listen carefully, okay?" Hiruzen told the young blond, since they were in his mind, he did not look like his henged form.

 

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "alright then, shoot."

 

**To Be Continued.....**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for it being short, I wanted it to be longer, but then I got hungry, oh well. Ja ne


	4. Family Creation

Naruto looked up to Kura as she talked, "Naruto-kun, you know that I'm not technically from this world, right?"

 

Naruto blinked up at her, "wha? You're not?" he gave her a confused look, as did the third.

 

Kura nodded, "oops, looks like I forgot to mention that huh? Well, yeah, I'm not from this world, actually, not from this dimension really. It's kind of a long story on how I got here really," she chuckled as she scratched the back of her head.

 

Naruto gave her a deadpan look, "you have fifteen minutes, go."

 

Kura sighed, she knew when Naruto got that look on his face that he wasn't messing around, so she started telling her tail. "Okay, I came from this place called the Soul Society a really, really...really long time ago. So I guess I age pretty well then," she said as she admired herself in a mirror that she materialized out of thin air. Seeing as though it was Naruto's mind and not the real world, doing things like that are common. 

 

"Kura-chan," Naruto and Hiruzen sighed.

 

She chuckled and made the mirror disappear. "Sorry about that," she cleared her throat, "okay, anyways. I was on an assignment with my squad and captain, we were fighting these things called 'Hallows' when this rift between worlds opened up. The rift, also known as a 'Garganta' opened to reveal the Hallow's homeworld, a place called Wakomundo. There were a lot of Hallows that was getting away from us and we wanted to stop them from ever coming back to our world, so we agreed with our captain to jump into the Garganta after them to get rid of them all. But, when I jumped in, seeing as I was the last to go, I just barely made it through the opening, however, when I stepped through, something happened. I'm not exactly sure what it was or what happened after that, but I do know that when I woke up next, I was in a forest, it was really dark, and well...I saw him."

 

"Him? Him who?" Hiruzen asked.

 

"Madara, the old bastard himself," Kura explained.

 

"Wait, wait, so what you're saying is that you came from some play called the Soul Society a really long time ago, and you used to fight monsters?" Naruto asked not really believing what he was hearing, but Kura nodded her head, knowing what he was thinking. "And you said that you were jumping through a rift between worlds-"

 

"It's called a GARGANTA, Naruto, listen when I say stuff," Kura corrected.

 

"-That somehow landed you in our world on the night that Madar attacked?" Naruto finished as if Kura had not explained anything.

 

Kura sighed, "no, that's not what I said, and that night was not the first time I met that bastard either. Allow me to explain fully, okay?" She asked, Naruto and the third shrugged their shoulders and sat down before the dimension-hopping fox. "Right then, so the first thing I see when I open my eyes is Madara Uchiha, but in his youth. It was around the same time that Hashirama Senju was Hokage."

 

"Wait, you met Hashirama Senju all those years ago?" Naruto asked in awe.

 

Kura watched him over the head, "well course you dumby, who do you think captured me the first time around!" She rolled her eyes at the blond, "anyways, Madara used his jutsu stealing eyes to control me and make me do his bidding, and that was when the fight at the Vally of the end started. After the fight, Madara played dead and Hashirama put me in a cage made of his chakra forest, I stayed in there for a while until Mito Uzumaki, your great-great-great-great aunt came to the village and sealed me in her. I told her my story and she almost didn't believe me, until I showed her my memories of all that time ago, after that, she wanted to help me get back home. However, she was stopped by a council member, someone named Donzo I think, plus some of his supporters. They threatened your Aunt Mito with all sorts of things to keep her from freeing me, but the worst thing that they could have done was to threaten to kill her son since she was pregnant at the time."

 

"What? No way, how come I didn't know about this?" Hiruzen asked, seeing as how he had spent the better part of twelve years in Naruto's head with Kura, but yet he didn't know about such a thing.

 

Kura shook her head, "I didn't want to tell you because there was nothing that you could have done, plus, it was a really long time ago. You were probably still in the academy or still being born, whatever it was I didn't really know you back then either way, so it was pointless. Anyhow, when the threats against her unborn child became too much, Mito had to stop all visible efforts on trying to help me."

 

"She gave up?" Naruto asked confused, "that doesn't sound like an Uzumaki."

 

"I SAID VISIBLE!" Kura yelled at the blond, "stupid brat doesn't listen. "She still helped me out, but away from the public eye, making sure that it was secret. She managed to come up with a pretty basic theory on a time-space jutsu that could potentially open up a rift, not unlike a Garganta, that could possibly send me home."

 

"What happened to the jutsu?" Hiruzen asked.

 

Kura decided to sit down as well, "Kushina, the little slut that she is, happened."

 

Naruto was unsurprised to hear Kura speak about his mother like that. He would speak about her like that as well, and sometimes, he thought along the same lines. He could only guess what Kura was talking about, "did she do something with the jutsu?"

 

"Hell yeah she did, the bitch nearly gave the whole thing away to that air-head husband of hers!" Kura all but shouted.

 

"Wait, what! You mean that the Harashin jutsu, Minato's most favorite and famous jutsu was actually not his own work?" Hiruzen asked somewhat taken aback by the news. 

 

"Damn right its not his! Okay, let me tell you this much, back in my world, chakra and spiritual energy is very similar. But chakra is more like a watered down version of spiritual energy mainly because it is not coming from a person's so but rather, the energy of the soul. Its a little hard to explain it without giving it all away, but yeah, like that. What Kushina did was take most of the work that Mito and I had worked on together and presented it to Minato. Thankfully, I managed to get some control of her body through overpowering her will of strength so suddenly that she didn't have time to prepare for it. I took what was important for the rift aspect of the jutsu and hid it in a secret spot in the Hokage mountain, then made fake notes on the missing pieces. By the time Kushina's will came back in control, I was partly done, but it was just enough to look real and nothing was amiss, well not to her at least. I think the papers are still there after all this time, but I can't say that for sure."

 

"So, if we got the notes that you hide from Kushina, then we could use that to open a rift and get you home? And find myself a new home too?" Naruto asked thinking up a few ways on how to go about it.

 

Kura nodded, Hiruzen asked a question next, "what parts of the jutsu did Kushina give to Minato? Would we need those parts as well?"

 

Kura thought about that, "I can't say for sure, I saw Minato burning the notes that Kushina handed to him when he finally finished making his Harashin. Although, if he did make a few changes, I would like to see what formula he came up with before we try putting it together with the rest of the notes. If we can, then I'm sure that we could use his notes too if you can get into the library unnoticed so I can see, I can tell you for sure."

 

Naruto nodded, "right, sounds like a plan."

 

"What happened after Kushina gave Minato the notes? I know he finished the jutsu and said it was his own creation, but there must have been some side effects from using an incomplete jutsu like that."

 

"Correct, the first time he used the jutsu to test it out, he was shot directly into a void for some time. When he came out, he had aged nearly two years, however, he covered that up with a genjutsu constantly just in case anyone other than Kushina noticed. From there, he would tweak the jutsu until he got it, but it came at a price, one that not even he knew of."

 

"What do you mean by that?" The old former kage asked.

 

"...He's dying, slowly," Kra said as she folded her arms in front of her ample chest. "Because he uses the jutsu so often, and its still incomplete, his cells are dying off bit by bit everytime. He probably doesn't realize that the jutsu is the one to blame for this, he may never know. The jutsu that your and I perfected over time was meant to be used as a whole, not some incomplete piece with other variables involved. In fact, when he uses the jutsu, he is actually opening himself up to cosmic rays or dimensional feedback."

 

"What's that?" Naruto asked.

 

Kura thought for a moment, "its a more potent radiation that would kill you years quicker than normal radiation would. Anyways, the more he uses the jutsu, the sooner he would die, I would not be surprised if he started to show organ failed within the next year or so." She opened her eyes and looked at Naruto, "he would most likely come after you to get donations if that was to happen, and I can't guarantee the safety of you and your child if it did happen."

 

"Ha, some fa-wait, did you just say my child?" Naruto asked mid-sentence.

 

"Uuh, n-no, I meant, your fertility, you know? Like, um, your future children and stuff, if he killed you know, how would make them, right?" She laughed nervously.

 

Naruto looked at the fox woman critically, he did want to know what she meant by that. Then again, ignorance is bliss and he was a boy, she couldn't mean what he suspected her to, right? "Okay," he shrugged his shoulders, "well then, where are the notes hidden?" Kura told him that they were located in the left eye of the first Hokage's head, she also gave him some tips on how to break into the library of the Uzumaki-Namikaze estate. "I'll get those papers and we'll all leave here together," he stated as he started to fade out from his own mind.

 

When he was gone, Hiruzen turned to the foxy woman, "you didn't tell him?"

 

Kura shooked her head, "he'll find out soon enough."

* * *

**With the Uzumaki Namikage family**

 

"Where is she!" Kushina screamed as she paced the Hokage office.

 

Minato watched his wife as she paced, they had been looking for Akime for the better part of four hours now. Yet they could not find not one trace of her anywhere they looked, and they had looked all over the village for her. Even in the bathhouse. Still, nothing was shown for their work, it was bordering on five hours when someone burst through the office doors, "HOKAGE-SAMA, WE FOUND HER!" Screamed one of the ninja's that was sent to look for the missing girl.

 

Minato stood up and looked the man in the eye, finally, a lead. "Where is she right now?"

 

"She's on top of the Hokage mountain, sir," the man saluted.

 

"What? But we checked the mountain and the surrounded area with two different search parties," Kushina stated angrily. "How could she have been under our noses the whole time?!" She turned blazing eyes towards the offending mountain outside of Minato's office window. 

 

"I have no idea Kushina-sama, we had our best sensory types on the job while we were looking for her too," the man commented. He was annoyed with the girl's easy skills to hide from them.

 

"Everyone, to the mountain, we'll surround her so she can't get out!" Kushina ordered.

 

Within minutes, the Hokage mountain was surrounded, Minato and Kushina were about to sneak into the mountain when a light shined from within the first Hokage's head. Shinning outwards so it looked like the carved head was coming to live or something. Then just as quickly as it had come, it went out, "what was that?" One of the ninjas surrounded the mountain asked their leader.

 

"I don't know, but we're about to find out," Minato stated as he started for the first head of the mountain. "Everyone be on your guard, she is skilled enough to lay low and slip through our fingers if we are not careful. Move in."

 

The Hokage and his wife slipped inside of the Hokage's mountain first, followed by their ninjas. However, they did not find what they were looking for, the place was empty, they had lost their target once again, "damn it!" Minato cursed when he realized that Akime was no longer on the mountain, he turned to his men, "fan out and start looking, she couldn't have gotten that far."

* * *

 

**Meanwhile, a lot of miles away from Konoha**

 

Naruto opened his eyes to see where he was, the first thing he saw was a pair of startled seafoam green eyes sounded by black rings staring back at him. He blinked his eyes, once, twice, thrice..."uh, where am I?"

 

**To be continued...**


	5. Family Creation 2

"Uh, where am I?"

 

"AAAHH!" Came a scream from the boy with seafoam green eyes, he stumbled backward in an attempt to get away from the sudden arrival of the blond-haired, blued that seemed to appear in front of him out of nowhere. Without warning, a hand shot out from the blond and grabbed him before he fell to the ground.

 

"Oh, sorry for that, I didn't mean to scare you like that." Said the blond as he helped the other boy up, he gave him a bright smile, "my name is Naruto, what's yours?"

 

The other boy stared at Naruto for a long time, not sure what to do. He looked the boy over as he took a few steps back, he was not dressed like everyone else in the village, so he had no idea who he was or where he came from. Was he apart of the village? A new person here to assassinate him on his father's wishes? If so, he could not trust him. However, he was curious about the boy that showed him nothing but kindness in his mind, it could have been a trick, but then mother would have been asking for his blood by now. He was stunned by that the most, mother always asked for blood whenever someone comes into his field of view, so who was this person? What made them so different from all the others that mother would not ask for his blood? Could he be trusted if mother didn't want his blood?

 

The boy, Naruto looked at the other boy, he was being strangely quiet. He guessed that he was suspicious of him since he appeared so suddenly in front of him. He looked around the place, it seemed like he was in another world, but at the same time not. Was this how other universes seemed when you first arrived? He turned back to the boy in front of him, he still hadn't gotten his name, he looked the boy over. He wore a dark red and brown outfit, there was a gourd of something seems to be heavy on his back, and his hair was blood red. He noticed that the boy's eyes had many mixed emotions that leaned more over to fear, worry, suspicion, and the like, the slightest bit of curiosity lingered for a moment before disappearing for good. Naruto frowned, "can you understand me?" He asked, maybe this was another world and they spoke a different language here, he wondered what language that would be. He would have to learn it so he could communicate with this kid.

 

"Gaara," the redhead finally said after staring at the boy for a long time. He didn't know if he could trust him or anything, but if mother didn't want to kill him just yet, then he would definitely learn more about him. After all, if he was an enemy, he could do well to seeing what he knew first while he could. 

 

Naruto smiled at him, "okay Gaara, so you can understand me, right?"

 

Gaara gave him a weird look, "yes."

 

Naruto brightened at that, "great, so can you tell me where I am? What world is this?"

 

Now Gaara wanted to know what kind of drugs this kid was on. His father would never hire anyone that was this crazy, right? No, never, his father was a serious man and he would do well to hire equally serious people to work for him. People that hated him just as much as his father seems to. "I don't know what you're talking about, you're in Suna, what world do you think you're on?" He asked in his usual low raspy voice, it had deepened since he didn't use it much to speak.

 

"Suna!" Naruto pouted, it seems that the jutsu didn't work after all, "or maybe I didn't use enough energy," he thought out loud to himself.

 

"What do you mean by that?" Gaara asked becoming more suspicious of the blond by the second.

 

"Hm? Oh, right, I was just talking to my self. This might sound crazy or whatever, but um." Naruto didn't know if he should tell Gaara about the jutsu he was going to use to go to another world with. He would sound nuts!! Well, maybe not as much as he might think since he just showed up out of nowhere like he did, so he told Gaara about the jutsu, his want to escape his village, his disguise, and Kura and Hiruzen being inside of his body. Gaara didn't know what to make of the boy in front of him, it was like he hopped out of some crazy comic book and still thought he was in his original story. "And that's how I got here, so, what do you think? Crazy huh?"

 

Gaara was about to say 'yes' when mother spoke,  **"Gaara, you need to go with this kid."** Gaara was startled, firstly because this was the first time that mother had ever called him by name. Second, this was the first time that mother had told him to do anything that did not involve blood...was the world coming to an end? Meanwhile, Shukaku facepalmed, of course, the kid would think such a thing. He sighed,  **"no the world is not ending, brat! Just do what I say and help this kid get out of here before those assassin ninjas get here! Hurry up, you only have about five minutes until they're here!!"** He screamed at his container.

 

Gaara could not disobey the voice in his head that he called mother. It was the only thing that kept him from drifting through life like a ragdoll in the wind. "Yo! Panda-chan! Are you still with me?" Naruto asked as he waved his hands in front of the redhead to get his attention.

 

Gaara blinked at the blond, coming back from his little talk had dazed him a bit since he had never done it before. "What?" He asked.

 

Naruto breathes a sigh of relief, "man, for a second there I thought I lost you." 

 

"My apologies, I was speaking to mother," Gaara stated blankly. 

 

"Mother?" The blond asked slightly confused, he heard Kura say something about a jinturiki being in Suna once and he connected the dots. "OOOH! Okay, okay, I gotcha, so what did your mother say?"

 

Gaara was not sure how to interpret this blond's behavior, seeing as how he never encountered anything else but hate and disgust in his life. He let that thought sink to the back of his mind, however, "mother wants me to help you with your jutsu, but I know why?"

 

Naruto thought about that for a moment, he looked around at their surroundings. They were on a rooftop, it was already getting dark out, the moon was starting to show itself through the clouds. He could sense chakra signatures starting to come their way and fast, "he got serious then, "I think I know why" he said looking in the direction of the chakra signatures. Gaara looked in the direction as well and sensed the incoming enemy, "hold onto me and I'll get us out of here." 

 

"You?" Gaara asked as he stepped closer to Naruto again, "what are you going to do?" 

 

"I'm going to do what I did before and get us as far away from whoever those people as fast as I can." Naruto explained, "now hold on." Gaara decided that he would do as told, he stood next to Naruto and held his arm firmly, once that was done, Naruto went through some hand signs as quickly as possible. His body started to glow, starting with his feet and went upwards, just like last time, Gaara's body as began to glow until the two of them were shining as bright as the sun. In a flash, they both disappeared from the spot they were in just as the approaching ninjas arrived to kill their target. 

 

"What the hell? Where did they go?" Asked one Suna ninja as he turned around looking for the two boys from before.

 

"I don't know, but we'll have to tell Kazakag-sama about this right away. We can't let that demon run around with an innocent boy! Who knows what he could make that kid do!" Answered another Suna ninja.

 

"Let's go, we need to be quick so they don't get too far away," said the leader of the group, then they all jumped off the room towards the Kage tower.

* * *

**In another village**

 

A flash of light appeared and Naruto and Gaara had to blink away their sudden daze of the jutsu. They looked around at their surroundings, "uh, where are we?" Naruto asked.

 

Gaara looked around at the stone buildings, the tall buildings, "I think this is Kiri..." he said. "I came here on a mission once to deliver some documents sometime before the war started," he let go of Naruto's arm as he looked around the village, it looks like they had managed to land right in the center of it. However, there was not a single soul around to show that the place was still inhabited, Gaara found this to be very odd because even during a war, the village would have many people walking about it. Especially in the center of it, something didn't feel right here.

 

Naruto shared this feeling as he also looked around the seemingly empty buildings. Everything seemed to be colored a nice shade of light and dark blues, giving it the feeling like you were surrounded by walls of water. "Gaara, you've been on a mission to this place before, right?"

 

"Yeah," Gaara said turning back to the blond, wondering what he was thinking.

 

Naruto looked at Gaara, then looked past him to a large tower, he got a strange feeling when he looked at that one building. "Let's head over there," he pointed to the building.

 

Gaara looked to where he was pointing, "the Mizukage building?" 

 

Naruto nodded, "yeah, there's something...off about it."

 

Gaara nodded because he too felt something odd about the building. It didn't seem to be the building itself, but maybe what was inside was the cause of it? He didn't know, but he wanted to find out, the last time he was here, he had met a boy that was a year older than him and seemed to be similar to him in some way. "Let's go," the two started walking towards the Mizukage building, keeping an eye out for enemy ninjas along the way. The walk was quite as they passed through the town, they started to move quickly as they felt the eeriness of the situation fall around them, their fast-paced walk turned into a sprint, then a full-blown run. They ran as fast as they could through the streets while trying to stay out of sight, whenever it was that made the village so empty might come back for them, even though this was not either of their villages. They made it to the Mizukage's tower and entered the building, a sense of dread falling upon them when they noticed the lack of guard the place had, why was it that this place was so empty? What happened here? Where the thoughts that entered their minds, they made it up to the top floor silent as ghosts and pushed open the Mizukage's door. Inside they saw a regular Kage's office but was colored in blue instead of red, like the Hokage or a dark yellowish brown, like the Kazekage's office. 

 

"Spooky," Naruto muttered as he entered the room. The place was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop in it, he looked over at the desk and the walls that seemed as if it had just been left unattended a few minutes ago. There was no dust in the office, so the owner could not have been gone for that long a time. He walked over to the desk to see if he could get some information on what was going on here when he came across some shocking news. "Gaara, take a look at this!" 

 

Gaara stopped looking over the pictures on the walks and walked over to the blond. "What is it, Naruto?" Naruto pointed to the calendar on the desk, Gaara didn't really see anything wrong with it until he looked at the day and date. "October 10, XXXX? How can that be? We're still in April," he looked to Naruto as if he had the answers.

 

Naruto stared at Gaara wide-eyed, "April? What are you talking about, it was nowhere near April when I met you!" Naruto said.

 

"Naruto, I'm not some kind of idiot, I do know the days and months of current time." Gaara explained, "when you appeared in front of me, I had just come back from a mission to Iwa and it was April 16, XXXX."

 

"No, when I did the jutsu the first time, it was June 12, XXXX." Naruto stated confused, he thought about the differences in the years, "if I left in June and showed up in front of you in April, then that means that one year had passed since I left home." He looked at the calendar again, "and now that says October," he gasped and turned back to the redhead. "Do you know what that means?"

 

Gaara nodded, he was shocked, but he didn't let that show on his face, it wouldn't help the situation anyway. "That means that you have been gone from your village for about three years, while I've been gone for a little over two years. But I'm not sure how that can be possible, you said that you jutsu was supposed to take us to another dimension, right? But from what I can tell, we've only stayed in our dimension and we've gone forward in time a bit." He theorized, "did something go wrong with the jutsu?"

 

Naruto shook his head, "no, everything went fine both times. I did the right hand signs and I gave the same amount of energy both times two. I was hoping that we would just end up in another place like I thought I did when I found you. But then this? What is going on here?"

 

 **"I don't know for sure, but I think that I can answer that question for you, kit."** Kura said from within Naruto's mind,  **"hold the boy's hand and bring him in here, I'll explain my theory to both of you one time."**

 

Naruto nodded his head, turned to Gaara, "hold my hand," Gaara gave him a funny look for the sudden change in subject. "Just trust me, okay," Gaara hesitated for a second before holding onto Naruto's hand. Just as soon as their hands were connected, they were both pulled into Naruto's mind, the next thing they knew, they were falling which freaked them both out, the ground was fast approaching and Gaara found that his sand didn't work here. When they were about to hit the ground, they closed their eyes to wait for impact, but two pairs of arms caught them before they land, opening their eyes, Naruto found that he was in Hiruzen's arms, while Gaara was in Kura's arms. The two adults put them down on to their own feet.

 

"Well, that was a bit of a trip, wasn't it boys?" Hiruzen smiled at them.

 

"Who are these people Naruto?" Gaara asked, his impassive face returning full force, he would also not admit that he was a little scared when he found out that he could not work his sand here. Looking around, it seemed that they were now standing in the middle of some forest in the hight of spring, the trees were changing color and the scent of cheery blooms was in the air, along with the smell of freshly cut grass and baked cookies. Looking behind the two adults, he found that there was a sizable cottage there with smoke coming out of the chimny. "What is this place?"

 

"It's my mind." Naruto stated as he breathed a sigh of relief, "Gaara, this is Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage of Konoha, and next to him is Kura, the Kyuubi."

 

Gaara's eyes widened a fraction when he heard Kura's title, "the Kyuubi, so then, that means your a-"

 

Naruto nodded, "yeah, I'm a carrier of the tailed beast, she was the one I told you about before, remember?" Gaara nodded as he connected the dots in his head, though, it seemed that Naruto failed to tell him about the old man. They could get to that later. For now, they had questions for the two. "Kura-chan, what is going on with this jutsu? I thought it was meant to bring us to another dimension, not throw us through time!" 

 

Kura scratched the back of her neck, "well, the thing about that is, it seems that you may need a little more chakra to get out of here."

 

"More chakra?" Naruto asked, "but I have you sealed inside of me, how much more chakra am I supposed to get?"

 

Hiruzen stepped in at this point, "Kura-chan and I have been talking about this when you first met Gaara here. From what we can gather, you are using a lot of energy to use the jutsu, but that alone is not enough to break through, say, a dimensional barrier. To do that, you would need a heck of a lot more power and as far as I can gather, you may need the help of the young man coming to this office."

 

"Young ma-you mean the Mizukage's coming back now!?!" Naruto said in a panic.

 

Kura nodded seriously, "yes, but be careful, I can feel another presence in him that tells me he's not himself. I know the Sanbi's chakra anywhere, he's definitely in need of some help." Kura looked up at the sky over the tree-line that circled them, a blurry image started to form until it cleared to show the image of a boy with dark gray hair and bright purple eyes enter the office. He had on a fishnet shirt, a green scarf tied in the front, black pants partly covered by a black long sleeved jacket, there was a scar on his face and his eyes seemed to be somewhat glazed over. "You two better get going now, it looks like he's going to attack any second," Kura stated as she started to push them both out of Naruto's mind.

 

"Oh, and Gaara." Hiruzen spoke, "tell Shukaku not to go too crazy during this fight, we may need this boy's help. Something tells me that he would be more than happy to come with us when this is over." Gaara and Naruto both nodded as they faded out the blond's mind, Hiruzen and Kura turned back to the image over the trees.

 

Gaara and Naruto came back to reality to face the young Mizukage. His movements seemed to be in control but controlled at the same time, like a puppet on a string. " _Who are you two?"_ Came a somewhat strained voice from the older looking boy.

 

Naruto looked at Gaara, they shared a small conversation in their eyes before turning back to the boy. "We are Naruto and Gaara from the Konoha and Suna, respectively. Who are you?" Naruto asked as casually as he could trying to make it seem like they were not a threat.

 

The boy grabbed something on his back, _"you are enemies, then I must dispose of you quickly before you ruin my plans."_ Came the strained voice again, he took off at the speed that was expected of a Kage, thinking that he could end things quickly. His efforts were blocked by a wall of sand that surrounded both boys, a poofing sound was heard and twelve Naruto's were now surrounded the boy and the sand wall. He turned around to face them,  _"interesting, so you two know a thing or two about fighting. That doesn't matter, I will still end you both."_

 

A fight broke out, two on one didn't seem fair. However, if one was at Kage level, with a tailed beast sealed inside of them, fighting against two jinturikis, then who was to say that the fight was not equal? Naruto got a few hits with his shadow clones while Gaara kept the boy at bay with his sand defense, the Mizukage fought off the two boys as best he could using a large hook-like weapon that turned anything it touched into a crystal. It had poisonous qualities to it as well, so Naruto and Gaara had to make sure to not get hit by the weapon. Naruto did a few fire jutsu, followed by some wind jutsus to make the fire stronger. The Mizukage was just barely able to block and counter the attack with an attack of his own, using a jutsu to make crystals shoot out of his mouth like Kunai. Gaara blocked the crystals from hitting Naruto and sent a wave of sand to distract the other boy, but while all of this was going on, the office walls were taking on damage. The walls were burned, some of it was still on fire, the wind jutsus that Naruto did was not helping matters. The crystal jutsu from the Mizukage sparked some more flames to come to life and finally Gaara's sand attack was the straw on the camels back. Since the Mizukage was standing in front of his desk, and his desk was in front of a window, the force of the sand broke the window and sent both the Kage and his desk flying out of the building. The young kage landed sixty yeards from the kage's tower, which caused him to end up going through one of the nearby buildings walls. Naruto and Gaara followed him out to see the damage that they had done, only to almost get sliced up by shards of crystals shooting out of the hole. The flew apart from the attack, forcing them to be separated temporarily when the Mizukage jumped out of the hole his body landed in, trying to strike one or both of them with his hook. By now, Naruto was getting tired of this back and forth fight, it wasn't getting them anywhere, he went through some hand signs and performed an earth jutsu that raised the earth up from under the attacking boy. Momentarily caught off guard by the jutsu and its strength, the young kage was captured, Gaara took this chance to secure the struggling boy with his stand. But the young kage would not let himself be caught so easily, he struggled with the earth jutsu a bit before the sand came over him, he was nearly free when he felt the heat of another fire jutsu lick at his binds. Before he knew it, Naruto's last fire jutsu had turned the sand covering his body into a hard glass that kept him in place.

 

"Now then, why don't you show us who you really are," Naruto said appearing in front of his captive and folded his arms. 

 

The Mizukage glared at the blond, "we both know that you aren't really the Mizukage, so you might as well stop using him." Gaara said as he came into view.

 

Seeing that he was found out, the Mizukage went still for a full minute before a black ghostly figure floated out of his body. The figure rose to stand over the glass that kept the boy in place, he became solid a second after his feet touched the top. The figure appeared to be a man, clocked in all black, black shoes, gloves, and hair, while his face was covered by an orange maks with only a single eye hole to look out onto the two boys and his previous vessel. "You two fight well, I would be caught right now if that was my real body," the man commented in a deep but smooth voice.

 

Naruto and Gaara looked up at the man emotionlessly, "who are you?" Gaara asked this time.

 

"Who me? Well, you may be too young to know, but I'll give you my name anyways. I am the one and only, Madara Uchiha, remember the name," then the man disappeared in a swirling motion that looked like he was being sucked into a black hole. 

 

Neither Naruto nor Gaara trie to chase after him, they knew that they would hit a dead end if they tried to sense his whereabouts. They instead turned their eyes to the young Kage that seemed to be waking up from his recent possession. Naruto kneeled down before him, checking to see if he was alright, he had steady puls. "He'll make it," he commented as he looked up at Gaara, who was looking off into the distance, "what's wrong?"

 

The read looked down at Naruto, "we need to leave," he said as the faint sound of an army coming closer to them was heard, "now."

 

Naruto nodded, he was a bit tired from the fight that they just had, but he wasn't going to let them be discovered like this. Not with a destroyed tower and a captured Mizukage with them, he nodded, "I'm going to do the jutsu again." He said as he pooled chakra to his hands and stood up from his spot on the ground, he pulled back a fist and punched the glass that they created into pieces. 

 

"Naruto, you can't do that, you've already done it twice already plus we just had a fight," Gaara stated as he picked up the unconscious boy from the ground.

 

"Got any better ideas?" Naruto asked as he huffed and puffed, he was really starting to feel tired right about now.

 

"How about I help? If We do the signs together, then you won't have to use so much energy," he reasoned.

 

Naruto wasn't sure if that was a good idea, what if they went even further into the future?  **"That might not be such a bad idea kit, you can probably get away from your father and his family,"** Kura commented.

 

Naruto sighed, "it's worth a shot, right?" He said as he got closer to Gaara, the sounds of an army were just minutes away from surrounding them, "follow my lead, okay?" Gaara nodded as they brought the Mizukage to a somewhat standing position between them with both of his arms around their shoulder. Naruto showed Gaara the hand signs needed for the jutsu, Gaara followed them, there were ten signs in all, once Gaara felt as if he got them down, they performed the jutsu together they flair their chakra at the same time and they were all engulfed in a bright light like before, just when the rebel army broke through the tree line. No one in the newly arrived army said anything when they saw the two boys taking the Fourth Mizukage away in a blinding ball of light.

* * *

**Somewhere else**

 

The bright light that had engulfed the trio died down to show a tired Gaara, a Naruto that could barely stand, and the knocked out Mizukage. Gaara looked around at his surrounding to see something that he was not hoping to see. Where ever they were, a massacre had just taken place because there was blood and dead bodies everywhere.

 

**To be continued...**

 


	6. Family Creation 3

 Gaara looked around at his surrounding to see something that he was not hoping to see. Where ever they were, a massacre had just taken place because there was blood and dead bodies everywhere. "Where are we?" Gaara asked looking around at the body covered road before him.

 

Naruto cracked open an eye to see what Gaara was talking about. Suddenly he was hit with a sudden bout of adrenaline as he saw the area around him. "No way, it can't be," he whispered to himself.

 

"What can't be?" Gaara asked curiously, "what is this place?"

 

Naruto looked at Gaara, "this is the Uchiha compound. The day of the massacre!" 

 

"What? But that...we went backward?" Gaara asked even more confused now.

 

"I guess so, quickly, we have to get out of her before-" Naruto started but was cut off when he felt a blade touch the side of his neck. Gaara and Naruto slowly turned around to see the owner of the blade, Naruto felt a little light headed when he saw Itachi with his Sharingan eyes activated.

 

Itachi, in the meantime, was a little more than taken aback when the person he thought was a witness turn around. "Naru-chan?" Itachi asked confused, he looked over the blond for a moment, "no, you're not, who are you?" He asked, thinking that what he was seeing was a trick. The Naruto that he knew was still only eight-years-old, the same age as his little brother, who he had left behind in a Tsukuyomi back at their family home. Looking at this person that clearly still looked like Naruto, but was at lest five years older.

 

Gaara made his sand rise up from his gourd, but Naruto stopped him, "Gaara, it's okay." Naruto turned to Itachi, "Ita-nii, I can't explain everything right now, but we have got to get out of here right now before anyone sees you with us, got it?" 

 

Itachi's eyes widened, there was only one person that called him by that nickname, his little brother only called him 'nii-san'. He nodded, "alright fine, but you're going to have a lot of explaining to do when we're in a safe place. Naruto nodded and watched as Itachi made two shadow clones, he had one of them carry the unconscious Mizukage, which he gave Naruto a funny look for, while the other one carried Naruto himself. He would have carried Gaara as well, but the redhead was not comfortable with people touching him more than they have to, let alone trusting someone to carry him on their back like a kid. Itachi and his clones made sure that their path was a clear one for their escape before he led the way out of the village without being caught, he was supposed to meet with the Hokage before leaving, but he could simply send him a letter later when he had time. He led them through the forest and out through a secret spot in the village wall that was just big enough to let one person through at a time. Once all four of them were out of the village walls, he made his way over towards the hiding spot that he was supposed to meet one of his teammates from the organization 'Akatsuki'. He saw a head of yellowish blond hair in the corner of his eye as he ran through the trees when he broke out of the treetops, he saw the brightly colored blond was wearing a black cloak with red clouds on it. The blond was also riding a large white bird, the likes of which Itachi had never seen before.

 

The person stopped them and floated in front of them, just over their eye level for a second. "I presume that you are Itachi Uchiha, the one I'm supposed to pick up? Hn," asked the person on the odd bird. 

 

"Are you Deidara?" Itachi asked.

 

"I am," the newly named Deidara answered, then frowned, "hey, what is it? I thought I was only supposed to pick up one person not a whole daycare of brats too, hn."

 

Itachi could sense someone coming their way, "I'll explain later, let's just get out of here." he ordered.

 

Deidara noticed the person coming as well, "fine, hop on," he said as he feeds his chakra into his bird, making it grow larger. Itachi jumped on, followed by his clones and Gaara. Deidara made the bird fly high and go faster so they were away from the area just before the person chasing them broke through the trees. 

* * *

**A cave near the border of Fire Country.**

 

Naruto had woken up from his nap explained to Deidara and Itachi what was happening, with some help from Gaara. "So let me get this straight. You two want me to believe that you have some sort of jutsu that breaks through dimension barriers, but it kept sending you one year into the future until it brought you here? Un," Deidara asked with doubt dripping from his voice.

 

Naruto and Gaara nodded, "yes."

 

Deidara's left eye twitched, "how did you come across this jutsu again, Naru-chan?" Itachi asked.

 

"Kura-chan told me," Naruto stated.

 

"And who, exactly, is this Kura-chan you keep speaking of, un?" Deidara asked a little-pissed off that he had to be talking to two brats instead of getting back to what he was supposed to be doing. Which was to bring Itachi back to the Akatsuki basic.

 

"Kura-chan is my nickname for the Kyuubi no Kitsune, she's actually not so bad once you get to know her. Although, her jokes are kind of dirty," Naruto explained.

 

"At least you get a tailed beast that makes jokes, mother only wants people's blood," Gaara frown cutely. Even though he didn't know it. 

 

"Don't worry, Panda-chan, Kura-chan said that she could fix you seal up once we all get a chance to rest so that Shukaku-san can't mess with your head anymore!" Naruto said happily.

 

"Wait, you two can speak to tailed beast? Hn," Deidara asked.

 

"Yes," Naruto and Gaara answered just as the sound of someone waking up caught their attention. Everyone turned around to see the Mizukage starting to wake up after all this time.

 

"What happened?" He asked groggily, he sat up slowly and looked around, letting his eyes get used to being open. His eyes landed on Naruto, Gaara, Itachi, and Deidara. He cleared his throat, "who are you all?" He asked on edge, he reached for his weapon but found that it wasn't there. "What do you all want?" He asked seriously.

 

"Let me explain," Naruto said with a sigh. One explanation later, "and that is what happened."

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

The Mizukage looked at the people in front of him, "how good were the drugs that you were sold? I think I might need some to face my village again," he said casually. 

 

Gaara sighed, "I knew he wouldn't believe us," he said in a monotone voice.

 

"Thank you! Finally, someone that's on my side! Hn," Deidara said as he threw up his arms dramatically.

 

"Well, it's not that I don't believe you." The Mizukage stated with a shake of his head, "but you have to admit that this sounds very far-fetched, don't you think?"

 

"I will admit that this is...strange," Itachi said after thinking some things through. "However, the fact of the matter is that the three of you are from a future time, somehow. If we think about this logically, then we should be careful with using this jutsu from now on." He looked at Naruto, Gaara, and the former Mizukage, "what will you three do now?"

 

Naruto looked at Gaara, "I don't want to go back to my time. I doubt that any time that I go to in Suna, I will always be seen as the monster that only wants blood. I was not always like this."

 

Naruto looked at him sympathetically, "what happened?"

 

Gaara shook his head, "I don't want to talk about it."

 

Naruto nodded, he understood that. "I wouldn't want to go back to my time either. My parents didn't even notice me much before my bother and sister were born, but after was a whole other story. I would have liked to think that I was in the back of their mind sometimes, but I know that wasn't true." 

 

"But aren't you the Hokage's kid too? Hn," Deidara asked, "shouldn't man like that notice his own son? Un." 

 

"Yeah, you would think so, but no, he was a real dick sometimes before. But that's fine, I'm gone now, I would like to know what they would do when they finally notice." A sad look came in his eyes, "if they noticed."

 

Itachi nodded, "hm, he thought."

 

"What are you thinking, Itachi-nii?" Naruto asked.

 

"I was just thinking, what if we all leave?" He asked.

 

"Are you crazy?" Deidara asked, "you're seriously want to go along with these whack jobs to some 'alternate universe', or something, forever and ever? Un."

 

Itachi looked at Deidara and nodded, "yes, it is not like I have anything else to live for here. I was ordered to kill my own clan as a mission from the Hokage and become a missing ninja until the day that I die. My little brother would be the only survivor, because of that, he would be driven by hate and revenge so much so that he would want nothing more to kill me to bring back the honor to our clan. He will not stop until he gets what he wants, I know. Above all else, no matter I do from here on, I will only be considered as a missing ninja and would be hunted down like a dog until the day I die."

 

"So what will you do?" Naruto asked.

 

"I think it would be better for me to disappear altogether from this day on. If no one can find me here, then I will be safe and free to live my life how I want without having to look over my shoulders at every turn." Itachi explained, "in fact, with three jinturikis, one being a formerly possessed kage, a newly made missing ninja who committed mass murder, and another missing ninja from a semi-unknown group of missing ninjas. I think that we all can benefit all of us."

 

"Who said I would go with you? Un," Deidara asked.

 

Everyone looked at him, "what would you have to lose if you did?" The Mizukage announced, "my name is Yagura Karatchi, the youngest Mizukage of Kiri. Well, I was," he sighed as he turned towards the others, "I think it would be best if I disappeared for good too."

 

Itachi nodded, it looked like everyone was in on the deal, everyone turned to Deidara. Said blond rolled his visible eye, "fine, I guess I don't have anything else to lose either. Hn."

 

"Cool, but I think that we should all rest up tonight," Naruto said. He scratched the back of his head, "I'm still a little tired from all the times I did the jutsu before."

 

Itachi nodded, "reasonable enough, I think if we came out tonight, we can have a better chance of facing whatever tomorrow may bring." He stood up from his spot on the floor, "come on Deidara, let's gather some food to eat," he said as he walked out of the cave they were camping in.

 

"Hey, who died and made you the leader here?" Deidara asked he didn't get an answer because Itachi was always out of the cave. He gritted his teeth and got up to follow Itachi.

 

"Well, I guess we should start making a fire or something, this one's just about burnt out," Naruto said gesturing to the slowly dying embers in front of them.

 

Gaara nodded, "I'll go get them, you two rest." Naruto went to complain but was stopped, "Naruto, you said that you were tired from using the jutsu so many times before. And Yagura just recovered from being possessed, I still have some energy in me to get the job done." He got up and followed the older blond out of the cave, Naruto sighed and decided to lay back down to wait. No use in complaining for no reason, right?

 

**To be continued...**


	7. Dancing through Barriers

The cave was filled with silence as the Konoha ninjas slowly moved towards it. The leader of the mission made some sighs, signaling her squad to move in. They slowly advanced onto the cave and with their target in mind. When they were in viewing distance of the cave's entrance, they stopped and hid. They could see that they were very close to their target now, they would have to be careful not to trip any alarms on the way in as not to alert their prey. As the leader of the mission squatted down on a tree branch watching the cave, one of her squadmates come over to give their report, "speak. But make it quick, I sense movement coming from the cave."

 

The person in question, a man with a rabbit mask on, nodded his head, "ma'am, Boar and I were able to get a look inside the cave. It looks like Itachi Uchiha is not alone after all."

 

"He's not?" The mission leader asked the rabbit man who nodded, "who's he with? Do you know?"

 

"No ma'am or, that is to say, we're not sure who they are."

 

The mission leader turned around to face the rabbit masked man. A frown on her face, "what do you mean by that? Did you check the bingo book? If Itachi's going to be hanging around anyone right about now, it would probably be someone from there." 

 

"Yes, that's we thought as well, and there is one person from the bingo book in there with him. But..." Rabbit paused.

 

"But what? Are there others?"

 

Rabbit nodded, "yes, there are three others. They're all quite young looking as well. I didn't get a very good look at the third, but the second and first looked familiar. The first one is the Kazakage's youngest son, Gaara, while the second one looked a little like the newly named third Mizukage. However, with that said, I have my doubts on the second, but I'm positive on the first."

 

The mission leader nodded her head and thought to her self for a moment, "hm, if that's so, then I wonder if Itachi had somehow managed to kidnap the son's of those two kages without anyone hearing about it. Hmm...what about the third one? Did board get a look at the third person?"

 

"Yes, he said the person in question looked a lot like your son," Rabbit informed her.

 

The mission leader tilted her head to the side a little, "Menma?"

 

"Eh...no, your other son, Naruto," he corrected her, brushing off the fact that there was someone out there that looked like that demon.

 

"Naruto?" Kushina asked as she seemed to be wondering if this could be possible, but then she shook her head, "either way, we need to hurry up with our mission before Itachi gets away. Who was the person from the bingo book?"

 

"It's the Mad Bomber Deidara, what are your orders?"

 

* * *

 

**Inside the cave two hours earlier**

 

It had been a few hours since Itachi and the others came back to the cave with food and firewood. They were only relaxing and trying to regain their strength from their earlier activities before getting to the cave. After about an hour of resting, Itachi broke the news to them that he sensed some ninjas heading their way because he had set up some traps around the area to make sure that they weren't caught off guard by anyone in the area. He set up a few traps to let him know if the person or persons in the area was either just walking around or were they heading in their direction pacifically. After hearing that someone had caught their scent, the group started thinking of ways that they could get away from the cave before getting caught or being seen.

 

"Why don't we do that jutsu again?" Yagura asked, "I mean, I was knocked at the time that Naruto and Gaara used it, but if it's possible to use it to get away. Then..."

 

"Hn, the Mizukage may have a point," Itachi answered. "However, we don't know where or when this jutsu could take us. It seems that there is no precise pattern in how this thing works. we could very well end up ten years in either past or present. It also seems to use up a lot of energy when it's used, we should be careful when using it."

 

"So what, un?" Deidara asked, "I'm not about to get caught by leaf ninjas because of your guys."

 

"Me too!" Naruto stood up, "I don't want to go back to that village, ever!" He frowned as he folded his arms in front of him, "I think we should do the jutsu again."

 

"Are you sure Naruto? You've already done it about three times in a row from what you told us. Do you really have enough energy to do it again?" Yagura asked, he was concerned for the younger blond, he didn't want to get caught either, but still. At what cost would he go through to get away?

 

Naruto thought for a moment,  "no, but..." he smiled as he came up with an idea, "why don't we all do it? I mean, Kura-chan taught me this jutsu in under an hour, so maybe I can teach it to you guys too." 

 

"I'm not sure-" Itachi started but Deidara cut in.

 

"Who cares what you think Itachi! Un, if this thing helps us get out of here without being caught, I'll do it." He walked up to Naruto, "alright since we don't have a lot of time, let's get started. Hn."

 

Seeing that no one was arguing with Deidara anymore, Naruto nodded his head started teaching them Kura's jutsu. In about an hour, just about everyone got the basics of the jutsu down. It wasn't all that hard to talk everyone through the hand signs, so he left the chakra distribution part to them. another hour went by and the enemy ninjas were getting closer to their location. "Okay, so does everyone got it?" Naruto asked a little anxious now that two hours had gone by since they started learning the jutsu and most were already looking a little tired. Yet, they were running out of time and there was no looking back now, the ninjas were close enough that Naruto senses them waiting just outside the cave, hiding in the trees. They had to leave now.

 

"Even if we all didn't get it, we only need one other person to know the jutsu to be able to perform it, right?" Yagura asked.

 

"It's possible," Gaara nodded, "let's hurry. They're about to come inside."

 

Itachi stepped forward, "let us begin," the others followed his lead and gathered around in a circle before going through the hand signs they just learned. 

* * *

 

 

**Outside present time**

 

"Okay everyone, move out!" Kushina ordered and her squad disappeared from their hiding spots. As they were charging forward to the entrance of the cave, there was a bright light that shot out of the cave. It was blinding, it forced everyone to stop in their tracks and cover their eyes from the brightness.

 

"What was that?" Asked one of the ninjas in the group.

 

"I don't know, maybe they're trying to escape!" Answered another ninja.

 

"Hurry, before they get away!" 

 

They rushed into the cave to see the tail end of the jutsu in action and they stopped and screamed. Kushina rushed in after then to see why her men were frozen in their tracks, but when she looked around the cave, she saw that a quick flash of light and then nothing. The only other light in the cave was the fire that had been left behind in their wake. "What is this? Where are there?" She looked around the cave, turning over every rock that she saw, she turned back to her team, "Rabbit, where-" When she turned to face the person, she was shocked by what she saw. Rabbit, as well as the other members of her team that ran into the cave before her, who were also wearing various animal mask, were now wearing melted animal mask. It a bit scary to think that that there was something strong enough to melt an ANBU mask, seeing as how the ANBU mask was designed to stand up to even the strongest koton jutsu, confused, Kushina walked up to the closest person and put her hand up to the mask. It was still steaming and emitting a strong heat. With that in mind, Kushina quickly coated her hand in chakra and ripped off the mask, she gasped when she saw what was underneath. Under the mask, whatever that light was from before, seemed to have been hot enough to burn the skin off of their faces. "Wha-what could have done this..." She asked herself, seeing that everyone was in the same condition, looking around, thinking about everything that just happened from the report. To the bright light that appeared before they entered the cave. To now, Kushina knew one thing, "I have to tell Minato about this, something strange was happening here." With that said, Kushina left her men behind as she took off in the direction of the village, swearing her revenge on the person that caused so many deaths in an instant. 

 

 

**To be continued**


	8. Spirit training

**Suna**

 

 

_When Naruto, Gaara, Itachi, Yagura, and Deidara awoke, they had found themselves in what looked like the middle of the desert. But, they weren't alone. As they awoke, there was a boy with short, bright red hair staring down at them. It seemed as if when they used the jutsu this time around, they had appeared somewhere high up and fell immediately after materializing. Their landing had created a large-ish creator in the sand that had attracted some attention, resulting in the appearance of this red-haired boy looking down at them._

 

_"What are you guys doing down there?" Asked the boy in a monotone, slightly curious, voice._

 

_Itachi managed to pull himself up out of the sand that they were kind of buried in to sit upright. He brushed off some sand from his head and looked up at the kid, "this might sound a little strange, but do you know where we are?"_

 

_The boy looked at the leaf ninja strangely, "shouldn't you know? You guys did fall here after all."_

 

_As the red-haired boy replied, the others started to get out of the sand little by little. Naruto looked up at the boy and noticed how red his hair was, "hey, Gaara, is that your brother?"_

 

_Gaara shook some sand off of him and looked up. For a second he was startled to think that one of his so-called siblings had found him, but then he relaxed when he saw the boy Naruto was referring to. "No, I don't know him," he stated as he tried to stand up._

 

_Deidara sat up and shook himself of as much sand as he could before he could get a good look at the redhead. "Hn, there's something familiar about that kid," he said more to himself than anyone else._

 

_Yagura stood up next to Deidara and dusted some sand off his shoulder, "do you know him?"_

 

_"Un, no, I don't know him, hn." Deidara answered snippily, "I just said that there's something familiar about him, that's all, un."_

 

_The boy in question listen was listening to there conversation. It wasn't every day that he met anyone that was not from the sand village. A faint sound in the distance made him look up and to the left. "Hey, if you guys are from another village, you should probably find somewhere to hide or something." He looked back to find some confused faces, "there are some sand ninjas coming this way right now."_

 

_"Sand ninjas?" Naruto asked, "so does that mean that we're in the sand village again?"_

 

_Gaara looked around, it wasn't hard to tell that they were in the desert, the sand sort of gave that one away. "We should take cover before we get into more trouble than we bargain for."_

 

_"Great idea genius, but if you haven't noticed, we're sort of in unfamiliar territory here." Deidara commented with a roll of his eye, "some of us didn't grow up surrounded by sand like you. Where do you suppose we go?"_

 

_"I think I have an idea," Itachi said as he got to his feet, he looked up to the boy at the top of the crater they were in. "Excuse me, little one, would you mind doing us a favor?"_

 

_The redheaded boy tilted his head to the side, he probably shouldn't be helping these people out. They were strangers, completely new to the land of wind from what the older blond had said. However, since he didn't have anything better to do, he decided to help them out, "alright, but in return, I have a favor to ask of you all too." The boy answered as he stood up over the hole. It was then that they noticed the boy's full appearance, he was dressed in the usual style of clothes you would see anyone wear in suna on a particularly windy day. A long tunic and scarf._

 

_Itachi nodded, "agreed. Please come here then."_

 

_"Are you serious Itachi?!" Deidara burst out, "what makes you believe we can trust this kid, un?"_

 

_The boy hopped down into the hole and walked over to Itachi, "if I wanted to turn you guys in, you wouldn't still be in this hole."_

 

_"He does make a good point, he could have gotten the guards before we even woke up," Yagura commented._

 

_Deidara folded his arms in front of him turned his head away from them, "whatever, hn."_

 

_Naruto and Gaara walked over to stand with Itachi and the other two. "What's the plan, Ita-nii?"_

 

_Itachi smiled brightly at Naruto, "we're going to hid here."_

 

_"Huh? How'd you figure that? Un, if you haven't noticed, this is a hole, no-" Deidara started, but Itachi stopped him._

 

_"What I mean is that we can use Gaara's sand to cover up the opening so it looks like there is no hole here, to begin with." He explained, he turned to Gaara, "if you don't mind, that is." Gaara nodded his head and let the sand from his gourd filter out, rising up to the top of the hole they were in and covering it. The sand created a ceiling for them that blocked out the incoming light. Once the sand was getting in place, Itachi had already light a match and take out a small portable lantern. He lights the lantern in time for everyone to see once the top of the hole was covered, "good," he turned to Naruto, "I believe the last time I saw you, I already given you a book on sealing, correct?" Naruto nodded as he remembered that day, "have you gotten any good at any of the seals in the book I gave you?"_

 

_"Yeah, yeah, I studied the crap out of that book. I know it inside and out now," Naruto said proudly, he felt around his hip for a pocket and remembered that he was still wearing the same outfit he had on since he left. He sweatdropped as his hand found the pocket seal he had sewn onto the outfit he was wearing. In fact, he had sewn pocket seals onto all of the outfits he made, it was handier that way._

 

_"Is something wrong Naruto?" Gaara asked, noticing the look._

 

_Naruto shook his head, "no, I was just reminded that I have been wearing the same thing since I left."_

 

_"Hn, we all have, smart one," Deidara commented as Naruto took out the book Itachi had given him from the seal on his clothes._

 

_"I know that, but Gaara and I have been doing this longer than you guys have." The younger blond pointed out, "I could definitely use a shower and some change of clothes too."_

 

_Itachi agreed, he couldn't wait to get out of his clothes either. There were some blood splatters on parts of his clothes that, even though are small in size, were still unsettling to wear. "We'll deal with that matter soon enough. But for right now, Naruto, could you do the seal for teleportation to get us out of here?"_

 

_Naruto set the book down to the side, opening it up to the right page before starting to draw the seal with blood from his thumb. "I don't really know this area so I'll need someone to give some navigation so this can work."_

 

_The redheaded boy squatted down in front of Naruto as he worked, "I can help with that. My house isn't too far away from town, and my parents and guardians are out right now, so we can go there. We'll have time to sort some stuff out before either of them gets back."_

 

_Naruto nodded and finished the seal. Gaara kept watching the redhaired boy, wondering about him. "Alright, I'm done," Naruto said as he stood up and started doing hand signs. Just as he was about to do the jutsu, Kurama pulls Naruto into his mindscape for some important news. "Kura-chan, what's the big deal? I-"_

 

_**"Relax kit, I actually have something important to tell you. It's about this area."** She starts,  **"the first time we were here, I faintly felt something that sort of reminded me of the portal that brought me to this world. However, now that we've arrived in a different part of the land of wind, I think it would be worth a try to use the jutsu closer to this spot. I can't guarantee if it would work for sure, but, I think, if we time it right, we'll be able to break through the barriers between dimensions briefly enough to make it back to my world."**_

 

_"Really?" Naruto asked, although he was hopeful, he looked to Hiruzen for a second opinion._

 

_The former Hokage thought for a moment, "I wasn't there when Kura came to this world, so I wouldn't l know for sure what to look for when we start searching. Yet, as Kura said, I too can feel an odd power coming from close by, but at the same time, I can't feel it. I've never known a time to be so sure and unsure about something in all of my years. But, I am willing to support you both in whatever choice you make next."_

 

_Naruto thought about his decision, "okay..." he started. He looked up to the sky of his mind and images of Itachi, Gaara, Deidara, Yagura, and the unnamed boy that was with them appeared. He thought about how he could explain this to them, he wasn't sure if he could trust the new kid. But if there was a possibility that this could work, he wanted to tell them about it. "If we can find the right spot, then everyone's going to need to join in when we go through, but, this is a pretty big decision. I don't know about Deidara and that other kid, but...Ita-nii, Gaara, and Yagura seem like they would be more than willing to come with us based on their past history in this world..." He turned to look back at Kura and Hirusion, "I'll need to discuss it with them outside."_

 

_Kurama understood and allowed him to leave his mind. When Naruto opened his eyes, he was looking into the eyes of a worried Itachi. "Naruto? Are you okay?" He asked._

 

_"Yes, I'm fine, what's the matter?" Naruto asked._

 

_"You zoned out for solid five minutes straight! Un," Deidara commented, "Itachi's been trying, to get your attention for the past three, hn."_

 

_"Really?" Naruto asked as he looked around, usually, it wouldn't take much time for him to come back to the real world._

 

_"Does this happen often?" The yet to be named boy asked curiously._

 

_"Not really, he must have been talking to Kurama," Gaara climbed in._

 

_"You can talk to your tailed beast?" Yagura asked Naruto and Gaara nodded, "I thought I was the only one."_

 

_"Well hasn't your tailed beast started talking to you again since you woke up?" Naruto asked._

 

_Yagura shook his head, "no, actually, and I'm not sure why."_

 

_"Hmm, okay, we can talk about that in a second, but first, Kura-chan wanted me to tell you something." Naruto started._

 

_"Who's Kura-chan? Where is she?" The unnamed boy asked, reminding every one of his presence again._

 

_Itachi decided to get to the know the boy a little before more information could be discussed. "What's your name? And what was the favor you wanted in return for your help?"_

 

_The boy looked around the area at the others, deciding that it would be better to come clean, he explained. "My name is Sasori of the Red Sand. But my grandmother just calls me Sasori. I don't know how much you know of me since my actual picture isn't in the Bingo book yet, however, recently I made a puppet that got me into trouble on the request of the mother of a friend."_

 

_"What do you mean, what kind of puppet did you make?" Yagura asked since he had been possed after becoming the fourth Mizukage, his possessor couldn't be bothered with news about any other village. Because of that, he didn't know about 'Sasori of the Red Sand'._

 

_"I had made a new puppet out of a dear friend that had recently died. He was my only actual friend in the village, so I liked him more than anyone else in the villager." The young Sasori continued to explain in a monotone voice, "before he died, I had made a prosthetic arm for him that could be used as both an arm and a weapon upon his own request. Knowing that a ninjas hands are their greatest tools, I did my best to designs a suitable hand for him, both it seems like once word got out, most people started to become afraid of me when I was only trying to help. After that, that same friend went off on the mission to another village with his team and was ambushed, his body was was just barely brought back to the village by his sensei and one other teammate that made it back alive. His mother was crying over his body, begging for someone to bring him back, I didn't know how else to do it. I tried making other puppets that looked like him, but none of them seemed real enough, he was still gone, and all that was left was a shell of his former self. That's when I came up with the idea to make his puppet out of that empty shell and presented it to his mother...but she didn't seem to like my work."_

 

_Hearing his story, even though it was a little more twisted than he would like, he found himself sympathizing with the boy. "So now you want to get as far away from your village as you can. Because you wanted to bring your friend back?" Surprisingly, it was Gaara that said the words that Naruto was just thinking, Sasori nodded his head once at Gaara. Both redheads seemed to share a deep understanding at that moment._

 

_Naruto smiled, "well in that case, why don't you come with us? We're also leaving for a better life somewhere far away."_

 

_"WHAT!!" Deidara nearly shouted, which could have given away their position if it hadn't already. Luckily, th sand that Gaara used over their head was laired on thick, but that didn't mean that it was impossible for anyone above them to hear him if they were listening closely._

 

_"What's the matter, Deidara?" Itachi asked unfazed._

 

_Deidara pinched the bridge of his nose, "so, un, we have three jinchurikis, one of which happen to be a former kage. A rouge leaf ninja, and now a boy that turned his dead best friend into a toy?! Un."_

 

_Everyone looked at each other, "what's your point?" Itachi asked._

 

_"Ugh, I give up, no, un. I've got a headache," Deidara sigh._

 

_After Deidara's outburst, Naruto started explaining to Sasori about everything. How they all came to know each other, where they came from, and what they were planning to do. Seeing as how Sasori didn't seem like he cared much about ratting them out to anyone himself, and had his own problems, he might as well. By the time He explained the basics of the jutsu to him, the air was becoming thin in the covered hole. "It might be a good idea for us to move to a better spot, somewhere with more air and better lighting," Yagura suggested as he glanced over to the lantern in Itachi's hand._

 

_Everyone else agreed, "since word about my absence from the village would be known by now, we can't go back there now," Sasori pointed out._

 

_"Actually, I know of some hiding spots far enough away from the village that we won't be discovered," Gaara announced as he got up from the spot he was sitting in once Naruto started his explanation. He dusted some excess sand from his clothes as he stood, "I found a few of them when I went out on missions some time ago."_

 

_"Sounds good. We should be careful when we leave this spot, we don't know if there are ninjas still in the area," Itachi explained._

 

 

 

That was three days ago...

* * *

 

 

**Now**

 

 

Since that time, Naruto's group had found a well hidden cave-like structure that was well hidden by the sand dunes of the desert. They were extremely lucky that their new hiding place also had an underground well with drinkable water. Once they settled down for a good rest, the group started looking around for the strange energy-portal-thing that Kura was talking about. They didn't have much luck until later that same night after venturing into the cave's tunnels further. They found a secret passage that brought them deeper underground to an empty chamber, there was nothing to see inside the chamber except for what looked like a large crack in the back wall. The crack was only a line in the wall that widened slightly at the floor. At the base of the small opening in the all that looked like it could only fit about two small mice, the strange energy felt like it was leaking through. When Naruto got closer to it, he felt like every step he took towards it was pushing him backward. As if he wasn't supposed to get too close to the small opening. 

 

 **"This is it."** Kura's voice sounded in his head.

 

"Are you sure?" Naruto whispered to her under his breath.

 

**"Surer than I've ever been, kit. We should hurry and do the jutsu now. I have no idea how long this thing will stay open after it took us this long to find it."**

 

"Un, so is this the place you guys are supposed to be looking for? Un," Deidara asked, by this point, he was only along for the ride.

 

Naruto turned to him, "yeah, this is the place."

 

Sasori looked at the crack in the wall, "how is this supposed to get us to a better place? Is this a hidden entrance to a lost city no one knows about?"

 

"You could say that?" Gaara answered.

 

Sasori nodded, "so how do we get in?"

 

"I'm not exactly-" Naruto started until Yagura called out to him.

 

"Naruto, look!" The Mizukage pointed to the small opening that was slowly starting to glow.

 

**"Naruto! Get everyone to do the hand signs that I showed you and focus their chakra onto that wall! Do it, do it now!"**

Naruto copied Kura's words to everyone else with just as much urgency as she did to him. He quickly showed Sasori the correct hand signs and hoped for the best. As everyone did their best to execute their part, even Deidara was taking part, mainly to see what happened. He didn't believe anything would, but just to see if anything did. Once everyone finished their hand signs and placed their hands onto the cracked wall to focus their chakra on it, the light started to shine a blinding white light through the small hole in the wall. Everyone focused the chakra onto the wall, not worrying about the faint noise of shouting and running feet that were starting to come down the tunnel they took to get here. The light still shined brightly as they poured more and more of their chakra into the energy source behind it until suddenly the chamber began to shake around them, the long crack in the wall that went from ceiling to floor seemed to be getting wider and wider as bits and pieces of the chamber started to collapse in on itself. The sound of shouting voices got louder, along with the sound of falling rocks. The crack in the wall started to seep in more light the longer the group concentrated on only the wall. Most of them were feeling weak by now, but they kept going, the more the light started to fill the room, the more it seemed like something was going to happen. They weren't sure if it was something good or bad, but it was something. 

 

"I don't think I can hang on for much longer," Sasori stated. He had sweat coming down his face to show how hard he was trying. And he was correct, he wasn't going to last much longer, his reserves were getting lower the more time passed.

 

"Hang on just a little bit longer, we're almost there," Naruto encouraged.

 

Now the light from the other side of the wall was filling the room to the point that they would barely see anything around them but the white light. Naruto didn't stop though, he pumped even more of his chakra into the wall, and Kura made sure to mix her own in with his. The crack in the wall started to spread outwards, bring more light with it. The room around them was coming down, the ceiling was nearing crushing level. Another second more and the cracked wall seemed to fall apart, time slowed down to a crawl, and Naruto opened his eyes to see what was happening. 

 

White.

 

A blanket of it.

 

It filled his senses with nothingness and he couldn't see a thing. He looked around, trying to find out where his friends and companions had gone, but he as alone. Lost in the sea of thingness. He felt like he was floating for a few seconds. The feeling of falling soon followed. Looking around frantically, he wondered where he was. 

 

_"Kura-chan, what's happening?"_

 

**"I'm not sure Naruto. This didn't happen last time."**

 

 _"Well, what should I do? I'm falling...I think."_ He thought to himself when he looked off into the distance again, he saw something. It looked like a person, but he wasn't sure. He tried to fall towards him, hoping that it was someone that was with him before he started feeling this way. It seemed to work, and he got a better view of the person, it looked like a guy. He seemed to be about fifteen and had brightly colored hair, but he couldn't tell what color. He could only see the guy from a distance, and could already tell that he was someone he had to meet, he didn't know why, but there was this feeling he got when he looked at the teen. A feeling of strength and safety. "Hey!!" Naruto called out. But the boy did not turn around. "Heeyy!! It's meee!!" Still no reaction, suddenly the feeling of falling started to intensify as if he was actually falling from high up. He looked down and saw clouds, he looked closer and could see an overview of what could possibly be a city.

 

This was real.

 

He was actually falling.

 

He could die!

 

Naruto turned back to the boy and everything around him turned white again. But when he looked back down, he saw the same sight. He was confused and scared, he didn't know what would happen now. Yet, he wanted to get that boy's attention. "Heeyyy! My names Narutooo! Come and find me, I need your heeelp!!" Once he finished saying that, the image of the boy turned to face, it almost looked like he had heard what he had said, but he couldn't be sure for himself. Naruto was just happy that he was heard, the boy's image disappeared and Naruto closed his eyes as his body fell to the earth below him. 

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

 

 

**To be continued...?**

 


	9. Finding him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enter Bleach!

_"Heeyyy!...mes...nd fi...me, I...heeelp!!"_

 

 

Ichigo snapped his eyes open, he was sweating a little and breathing hard. He blinked his eyes a few times to bring his brain back to the real world.  _What the hell, it was that dream again."_ He slumped his shoulders and took in a deep breath, but he didn't relax just yet. Ichigo got a tick mark on the side of his forehead and quickly got out of bed, just in time to avoid his father's latest wake up attempt/attack. For as long as he has known his father, Ishine, he had been a bit of odd man. However, it wasn't until Ichigo started his teen years that his father started to act even more strangely, attacking him in the morning before he woke up Attacking him in the evening when he got home from school. Attacking him if he was late coming home for dinner. And just being a general weirdo overall. Ichigo used to tell himself all the time when he was about thirteen and fourteen that his father would snap out of this weird face and start being a little less weird.

 

But then he turned fifteen and gave up hope for good.

 

He was sure that his father would always be weird and if that wasn't a fact, he didn't know what was.

 

As Ichigo got out of bed, he decided to knock some sense into Ishine for trying to wake him up that morning in such a savage way.  _"Honestly, who wake up their kid by trying to land their feet first on their head so early in the fucking morning!!"_ Ichigo thought as he pulled his fist away from his father's partly caved in face. "Seriously old man, aren't you getting a little too old for this?"

 

"Hahahaha, I've taught you well, my son. But I'm sure to get you next time, hahahahahahaha!!" 

 

Ichigo rolled his eyes at the man and walked over to the closet to get his towel and clothes. "Whatever dad," he grumbled as he left the room to go shower. While in the shower, his mind drifted back to the dream he just woke up from before having to fend off his father. Over the past few months, Ichigo has had this reoccurring dream over and over. In the dream, he was standing in a blank space devoid of life or sound. In the dream, he would be looking for something or someone, but by the time the dream was ending, he would hear this far off sound as if someone was calling out to him, but he could never make out what they were saying. It was very far away, garbled and muffled every time, he would stop to listen to the person, but by the time he could make out what a single sound, he would wake up. But, recently, Ichigo has been having that same dream for the past two weeks now, and he was finally starting to make out one or two words that were being called out to him. The words 'hey' and 'help' are the main things he's been hearing. But for the past three nights straight, he heard more than those two, it still sounded like nonsense to him, but he suspected that they were trying to tell him their name too. Whoever they are. Also, last night happened to be the first time that he had actually been able to look behind him in the dream. He always thought that he was just in a black space in his dreams, but maybe it wasn't actually a blank space after all. When he turned around, he saw a figure, he couldn't make out what it was, but he could tell that it was human, and it was small. 

 

Those two details didn't help him very much as he was sure that there were more than hundreds upon thousands of people that would fit that description.

 

Ichigo thought harder, " _there must be something that I'm missing. I wonder what it is."_ He turned off the water, dried himself off, and got dressed in his uniform before he heads down the stairs for some breakfast. When he got to the first floor of his house, he was just in time to get some toast that just popped out of the toaster. He put it in his mouth and was about to walk over to the fridge to get some milk to make hot chocolate with when he saw what was happening on the news.

 

One of his little sisters, Yuzu, was just finishing setting the stove to make some tea when she noticed him. "Oh, hey Ichigo, good morning," she said cheerfully.

 

"Hm, hey, good morning Yuzu," Ichigo said taking the toast out of his mouth to speak. He looked around to see that Karin wasn't there, "where's Karin? She's usually up at this hour." He noted as he walked over to the fridge to get some butter before his toast cooled.

 

"Karin's still asleep I think," Yuzu stated as she started looking around the kitchen for tea leaves.

 

"What, seriously? How come?" Ichigo asked curiously when he heard this.

 

"Um, let me think," Yuzu said making a thinking face, "I think I heard her playing some game on her fone last night when I got up to use the bathroom. I guess she stayed up all night playing."

 

Ichigo shook his head and sighed. "If it wasn't for soccer, I think Karin would have become a shut-in that only plays video games into the latest hours of the night."

 

"Your one to talk, didn't I hear you playing 'League of Legions' last night when you were supposed to be sleeping?" Yuzu and Ichigo turned around to see Karin walking into the kitchen with some dark bags under her eyes.

 

"AH HA!! I knew it! You were up to no good last night, weren't you Ichigo!!" Ishine yelled popped up out of seemingly thin air pointing an accusing finger at Ichigo.

 

Ichigo continued to eat his now buttered toast unbothered by his father's antics as he checked his phone for missed called and test from friends. Karin grabbed the second piece of toast that Ichigo had left behind and started butting it. Yuzu was the only one that felt a little bad for her dad when her older siblings didn't pay any attention to him. However, she couldn't blame them, sometimes their father got a little too embarrassing for even her to handle. Ishine felt the coldness from his two children and crawled into a corner to mop about. While he was doing that, Yuzu went back to making tea and served her siblings before Ichigo had to leave for school.

 

When the time came for Ichigo to leave, Kairn stopped him by the front door. "Hey, are you still working part-time for that shop in the mall?" She asked.

 

Ichigo looked up at her as he finished tying his shoes. "Yeah, I still have a few more weeks before my contracts up, what's up?"

 

"I was wondering if you could let me know when the new 'Sea Of Thieves' comes in?" She explains.

 

Ichigo smirked, "sure, I'll make sure you get your hands on it before Mark does." He chuckled a little when Karin's face turns a little red, Ichigo exits the house before his little sister could attack him for the comment. On the way to school, Ichigo's mind drifts back to the dream he had,  _"I wonder if it means anything."_

 

* * *

 

**School**

 

When Ichigo reached the child prison known as 'school', he proceeded to go about his day as he normally would. He listened to lectures, he talked with his friends. He listened to a cheesy story told by Kigo while he and Mizuito made commentary on which parts were true or not. Today's story happened to be how Kigo supposedly hooked up with a senior from an all-girls school, to which Ichigo and Mizuito straight out said was all a lie. Kigo insisted that it was. Chad, their other friend, had no comment. The day ended up being very boring, with Ichigo choosing to walk around town a little with his friends before they all split up to go home for the night. On the way home, Ichigo noticed that the vase of flowers he had placed by a light pole for the ghost of a little girl that died there was knocked over. He looked around to see who could have done it and saw a couple of douche bags on skateboards having fun not even a foot away from it. 

 

Of course, Ichigo had to teach these losers a thing or two about respecting the dead.

 

This resulted in him coming home a little late for dinner.

 

And he knew that he would get in trouble for that. But hey, he was standing up for the dead, could you really fault him for that?

 

Apparently, his dad could and they ended up getting into a physical fight over it. 

 

"You know what, forget it, I'm going to bed!" Ichigo said after knocking his father to the ground with a punch to the face. Tired, Ichigo closed his eyes for a few moments, he thought he would get some sleep and do his homework later. The teachers only gave out some light reading work that could be turned in either tomorrow or the next day today, so he had enough time to complete the work. As he drifted off to sleep, he opened his eyes to see that he was in the blank space again. Just like every other night, Ichigo looked around for something or someone. He didn't get the point of this dream at all, what was he looking for.

 

Who was he looking for?

 

As he looked around the empty space, he heard someone calling out to him. He looked around a little harder, this time he wanted to find out who was calling out to him. He was curious. He really wanted the dream to stop hunting him each night, and if finding that person is what he had to do to make it happen. Then that was what he was going to do. This time, when he hears the person calling him, he turns around and he sees them. The figure looked to be falling from the sky, but there was no sky here. He looked closer and heard...

 

_"Heeyyy! Naruto.....r heeelp!!"_

 

Ichigo couldn't believe his ears for a second but quickly shook himself out of it.  _"Hold on!! I'm coming!!"_ He shouted back to them, he started running to where the person was falling, but after a second of running...

 

He woke up. 

 

Ichigo sat up in his bed, not believing what just happened. He was never able to do that in the dream before. Looking around and listening was all he could do before.  _"Is that progress? But it's still a dream..."_ As he was thinking, out of the corner of his eye, Ichigo saw something, he turned around to see some girl dressed in black standing on top of his desk. It was odd, but why was she there? Where did she come from? She was saying something,  _"talking to herself?"_ Suddenly Ichigo's mind shifted, he remembered what was playing on the news earlier, it appeared that a robbery happened not too far from where he lived. With that thought in mind, Ichigo went onto the defensive and kicked the strange girl off of his table then turned on the lights. The girl was now laying on the floor of his room looking so confused, "now why don't you tell me what the hell you're doing here before I call cops."

 

The confused girl was dressed in black clothes, so it was easy enough to make the mistake that she was a robber or something. Or at least, that's the logic he was going with when the cops do show up. 

 

"Wait, you can see me?" The girl asked.

 

"Well duh, It was my foot that was up your ass just now!" Ichigo commented.

 

Suddenly Ichigo's father burst into the room with tears in his eyes, "Oh son! My dear son! Why didn't you tell me!!" He wailed, now Ichigo was hella confused.

 

"Huh?"

 

Ishine ran up to his son and hugged him as tight as he could, or tried to because Ichigo was trying to get away from him at the same time. "My dear boy, if I knew you were going through that sort of thing, I would have talked you through it!! How could I have failed as a father?!!" Ishine cried out.

 

"Wait, hold on! Dad, what th hell are you even talking about?" Ichigo was trying his best to get out of his father's grip, but the hug was too tight to escape. He looked up to see his sisters standing at the door, he could see Karin with a devilish smirk on her face. "Why you, what did you tell him, Karin?!"

 

Karin put her hands behind her head, trying to look innocent, but her smirk wasn't helping. "Nothing, I just happen to tell him about 'that'." 

 

Ichigo was confused for a second. A second that he used to stop struggling. A second that Ishine used to tighten his hug and Ichigo snapped out of it. "Urrg, whatever, dad call the cops, there's a burglar in our house!!"

 

"A burglar! Where?!" Ishine snapped out of his weird father mode to look around his son's room. 

 

Which was surprisingly clean for a boy.

 

Ichigo used this moment to escape his father's grasp and pointed to the girl in black. "Right there!" 

 

Ishine, Karin, and Yuzu all looked at the spot, then at Ichigo. "Where?"

 

Now Ichigo was even more confused, "right there." He said still pointing to the girl who was now in a sitting position on the floor in front of him. "what? Can't you see her? She's sitting right there!"

 

Ishine looked closely at the spot, but he still couldn't see anything there. "Nope, I don't anything."

 

"Me neither," Yuzu agreed as she also looked at the spot Ichigo was pointing at. 

 

Just then Karin had a great idea, "oh, poor Ichigo, now he's making up stuff to get your attention. It's a cry for help dad!"

 

"What! A cry for help." Ishine wiped his head back to Ichigo so fast that they thought he got whiplash. He got a serious look on his face, "Ichigo," he placed a hand on Ichigo's shoulder to make a point that the said boy wasn't getting. "Son, if you ever need to talk, I'll be here to listen, alright. I promise I won't let you go through this alone."

 

"Huh??" Ichigo was beyond confused now.  _"Okay, first he burst into my room talking nonsense, and now this? What's going one, what could Kairn te-Wait! Could it be..."_ Ichigo sent sharp eyes to Kairn, whos smirk turned into a full-on grin.  _"Oh no, she did, damn it! I knew I shouldn't have told her about it after all. Now, dad knows..."_

 

"Dad, I think we should leave Ichigo alone to think about all f this tonight. I'm sure he'll be ready to open up to you in the morning," Karin commented, a little too happily for Ichigo's liking, as she left the room.

 

Ishine nodded, "of course," he said and gave Ichigo's shoulder a light pat. "Don't forget, I'm here for you son."

 

"Eh, er, yeah dad, I know..." Ichigo watched as his crazy dad left the room, sending him another look in an attempt to be more manly or something. Ichigo felt his eye twitch a bit from the encounter and sighed, now he was alone with the girl. His eye twitched again, he turned to the girl who was just sitting there calmly, "so, are you a ghost or something?" 

 

"Something like that." 

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

**The Next day...**

 

_"Heeyyy! Naruto!...find me...your heeelp!!"_

Ichigo opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling of his room. He could see that he only really got a few hours of sleep last night. Tiredly, Ichigo got up from his bed earlier than usual, he felt like a zombie as he made his way to the bathroom. It was close to four in the morning and Ichigo couldn't bring himself to go back to sleep. This time he could see the person more clearly than before, it was a boy with golden blond hair and bright, beautiful blue eyes. He looked to be really young, probably closer to Karin and Yuzu's age than his own. He could make out one other detail that might help him in his search, there looked to be whisker marks on the boy's cheeks. For some reason, after finding all that out before he woke up just now made him restless. He didn't go back to sleep, how could he? Maybe that was why he was changing into a plain t-shirt and sweatpants and was making his way down the stairs for the front door. The smell of the morning air might do him well. Ichigo stretched his arms and legs a little before taking off for a morning jog before he had to get ready for school. As he made his way out the gate, he stopped and looked back at the damage that...thing did to his house There was a gaping hole right where the living room used to be and it looked like the wall had been hit by something really big. A more believable story would be a truck crashing into the wall, but not even he fully believed that lie. He had checked on his family before going to bed himself and they seemed fine, but he didn't want to wake them up now so he went on with his jog instead.

 

As Ichigo ran down the street of his neighborhood, making his way to the main streets where some light traffic was starting. He thought to himself.  _"Hopefully everything will be alright now,"_ he made his way to a nearby park for a small break. Looking up at the sky, he realized that he should be getting back so he would have enough time to get dressed for school and not be late. However, those plans were quickly shoved to the back of his mind when he saw something falling to the ground fast. He didn't give himself enough time to think about what he was doing before he did it. He rushed off at high speed and caught the thing that was falling from the heavens, once the thing was in his arms, he took a moment to look at what he caught.

 

It was him.

 

The boy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**To be continued...**

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any suggestions on what will/should happen next?


End file.
